NEWS

Mullin confronts Horn on social media over impeachment inquiry

Chris Casteel
Related coverage

Horn backs resolution on impeachment inquiry, while Cole expresses opposition Republicans hoping to unseat Horn defend Trump in impeachment probe Horn says Trump probe could have been handled outside of impeachment process Horn: Impeachment shouldn't be focus of House

Partisan hostility over the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump erupted within the Oklahoma congressional delegation on Thursday when Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin challenged the statements of Democratic Rep. Kendra Horn on social media.

Mullin told Horn on Twitter that she couldn’t “have your cake and eat it too” by supporting a resolution to further the impeachment inquiry while not taking a position on impeachment.

“This vote says you support the sham process to impeach our president,” Mullin, one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, wrote to Horn on Twitter. “It is very much a vote for impeachment.”

Mullin, of Westville, and the other three Republicans from Oklahoma voted against the resolution. Horn, of Oklahoma City, voted for it.

Mullin, who told a colleague to shut up in a committee meeting earlier this year, is confrontational, but taking on a fellow member of the state delegation is highly unusual.

Horn’s office declined to respond to Mullin’s comments.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Horn said she had decided to vote for the resolution but that it was not a vote for impeachment.

“The questions before us are serious, and I approach them without any predetermined opinion or judgement,” she wrote. “I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and will weigh the facts as they are presented in a thoughtful, fair and transparent manner.”

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, led the Republican debate on Thursday against the resolution, which was approved 232-196 with no Republican votes.

Cole said the Democratic majority “is admitting what we knew all along: that the House was not following an appropriate process for impeachment. But I do not think the process we are setting forward in this resolution is a fair one, either. It is not fair to the president of the United States, it is not fair to the House of Representatives and it is not fair to the American people.”

Rep. Frank Lucas, whose district includes much of western Oklahoma and the parts of Oklahoma City in Canadian County, said, “This investigation and those participating should have been factual, truthful and accountable to the American people from the beginning, yet instead the House is proceeding with a process that is just another partisan exercise, one House Democrats have been pushing since the day President Trump was sworn in.”

Lucas is the only House member from Oklahoma who was in the House when former President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998. Lucas voted for two articles of impeachment against Clinton.

House Democrats are investigating whether Trump used U.S. aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat running to face Trump in next year’s election.

National Republican groups, who have been targeting Horn since she won an upset victory last year over GOP incumbent Steve Russell, blasted Horn’s vote on Thursday.

One group, a political action committee that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, launched digital ads against Horn and 28 other Democratic House members considered vulnerable next year. Horn represents a district that Trump won by 11 points in 2016. The district includes most of Oklahoma County and Pottawatomie and Seminole Counties.

Horn said the resolution approved Thursday “ensures transparency, due process, and includes more protections for the president than any other president before.”

Those protections include several avenues for participation by the president’s counsel, she said. Mullin responded to her tweet by saying those protections only apply when the process shifts to the Judiciary Committee for the next phase.

Horn