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All of the stories surrounding the allegations surrounding Utah Attorney General John Swallow.

Utah's Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams Says He Will Vote To Impeach The President

Photo of Rep. Ben McAdams at a podium.
Rocio Hernandez / KUER
U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, D-UT, announced on Monday that he will vote to impeach President Donald Trump. The full House of Representatives is expected to vote this Wednesday.

Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, announced Monday that he supports impeaching President Donald Trump, marking the first time he has spoken publicly about how he would vote on the historic proceedings.

McAdams said evidence shows that Trump abused the power of his office by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a personal favor. McAdams also agrees that Trump obstructed Congress by trying to withhold pertinent documents and central witnesses as it investigated Trump’s actions.

“What the President did was wrong,” McAdams told reporters in a Monday press conference at Murray City Hall. “I cannot turn a blind eye, thereby condoning this President and future presidents, Republican or Democrat, to do the same.” 

But this was not McAdams’ first choice. 

The freshman said he had hoped to find bipartisan support to censure the president “instead of putting the country through a divisive and lengthy Senate impeachment trial with a predetermined outcome of dismissal.” 

He said he thinks bipartisan action would have been better than a “party line impeachment followed by a Senate show trial.” 

“I know my vote will not remove the President from office,” McAdams said.

McAdams won his seat in 2018 by a slim margin over the incumbent Republican Rep. Mia Love. University of Utah political science Professor Matthew Burbank said Utah’s 4th Congressional District — which spans Juab, Sanpete, Utah and parts of southern Salt Lake County — is mostly comprised of Republican voters and is the most competitive out of the four districts. Before Love’s tenure, the seat was held by Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. 

No matter what McAdams would have chosen, some of his constituents would have been unhappy with him, Burbank said. 

He doesn’t think though that McAdam’s impeachment vote will be critical to his re-election, but it will certainly give more ammunition to the Republicans already targeting him. 

“As a member of congress you don’t really want people running negative advertisements a year before you're going to be up for election,” Burbank said. 

The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on impeachment on Wednesday.

Rocio is coming to KUER after spending most of her life under the blistering Las Vegas sun and later Phoenix. She earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish at the University of Nevada, Reno. She did brief stints at The Associated Press, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno Public Radio. She enjoys wandering through life with her husband and their toy poodle.
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