Alaska Republican Young votes against Trump impeachment

JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young voted against impeaching President Donald Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” Wednesday, one week after a deadly mob siege of the Capitol.

Young’s vote was announced by another House member. His office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The House vote to impeach was 232-197.

Young, the House’s longest-serving Republican, voted against the first impeachment of Trump in 2019 over the president’s dealings with Ukraine. Young called those proceedings a “political stunt.” The Senate later voted to acquit, with Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan siding with the majority.

Murkowski told Alaska’s News Source this is different from the first impeachment, which she also said was partisan. She did not say definitively whether she would vote to convict Trump after a Senate trial in the new case, saying she would need to listen to Trump’s defence.

“But what I will tell you is that what I believe is that this president has committed an impeachable offence through his words on the sixth of January, and leading up to the sixth of January, when he was not honest” about the election and the election results, she told the outlet.

Murkowski also said barring Trump from holding office again “is one of the most consequential actions that we could take, and I think that would be appropriate. Given what we have seen from his actions and his failure to uphold the Constitution.”

Her spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. A message seeking comment also was sent to spokespersons for Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.

The Associated Press