Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei explains vote against impeachment

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., was one of the 197 Republicans on Wednesday who voted against impeaching President Donald Trump.

“The culture of vengeance cannot heal, allow us to move on or unify our country,” he said.

He said the fledgling investigation into what happened, “is already verifying that those who led the perpetrators were hardly driven to action within an hour of the riot beginning.”

Amodei said there is blame to go around for the past week, year and past five years. But he objected to the “haste” in taking action saying, “exactly who did what at the Capitol last Wednesday is an investigation that is just beginning.”

He said the article of impeachment accused the president of inciting violence against the government.

“Initial facts are clear, that well before the rally on the sixth, significant prior actions on the part of the Capitol perpetrators were being taken,” he said.

“Last Wednesday was an awful a day as there is,” he said. “Yes the Capitol is sacred ground, yes there is blame and responsibility for the president and, yes, we need to know who the perpetrators are and when their actions began. That’s called due process.”

Because of that, he said, “context, facts and due process are not, in my view, optional.”

So, he said, he voted against impeachment on Wednesday.