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Long-term Michigan Rep becomes latest Republican who voted to impeach Trump to resign

April 5, 2022 | | Print Article

Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton announced his retirement Tuesday from the House floor making him the fourth Republican who voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s impeachment to do so.

Upton, 68, spoke for nearly six minutes about his career and the wide range of issues that he was passionate about since his time as a member of President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the Office of Management and Budget. By his accounting, Reagan was an inspiration throughout his political career on how to “get things done.”

“Reagan worked both sides of the aisle to get things done,” the moderate stated, “caring less about who got the credit. And I made a promise that such a principle would be my guiding light. Especially in these days of divided government that is the only way one can actually get legislation enacted.”

“Hopefully civility and bipartisanship versus discord can rule, not rue, the day,” the outgoing congressman added with glaring allusions to his vote to impeach Trump and his posturing from the middle.

“Even the best stories have a last chapter. This is it for me. I’ve done the zillions of airline miles back and forth. I’ve signed ‘Fred’ to over a million letters, cast more votes than anyone in this chamber while here, and by most accounts have succeeded in making a difference, accomplishing what I’ve set out to do,” he claimed, “with more unfinished work still yet to come.”

The AP reported that census redistricting led Upton to be competing with Rep. Bill Huizenga for the same congressional seat. Huizenga, a six-term Republican, was endorsed by Trump who released a statement shortly after Upton’s announcement.

Republican Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Adam Kinzinger (IL) and John Katko (NY) who voted to impeach Trump had also made announcements of retirement. Similarly, each of these four retiring legislators had voted in favor of President Joe Biden’s bloated infrastructure bill in November 2021, to which Upton had reported getting threatening voicemails over.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) spoke after Upton who had mentioned the pair had been traveling together throughout their state. “It is his civility that I and Congress will miss the most. Fred really believed that he was an American first,” she stated in another possible dig at Trump’s preferred slogan, “that reaching across the aisle was important, that working together is how we get things done for the American people.”

https://twitter.com/gradhaiche/status/1511368798884012032

Upton’s announcement may not have been a surprise to insiders as Trump was recorded speaking at an event with House Republicans, fundraising John Gibbs who is running against Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), where he stated “six out of the 10” who voted to impeach him “are gone or effectively gone.”

Some consider the sixth “effectively gone” member to be Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) who is facing a challenging primary in her home state and may require support from Democrat voters to surpass Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman.

Kevin Haggerty
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