‘Deeply disappointed’: Democrat senator-elect pushes back against Trump impeachment push, sends message to Schumer
WASHINGTON, DC: Amid the intensifying row over Democrats’ plan to impeach Trump and his officials, a Democratic senator-elect, Adam Hamilton, expressed concern about his party’s priorities.
Adam Hamilton, who flipped a deep-red Kansas seat in Democrats’ favor, said that he would be deeply disappointed if his first two years as a senator were spent investigating Trump officials.
Hamilton pushes back his party's Trump impeachment fever
The newly elected Kansas senator has pushed back against his party’s call for impeaching Trump and his allies; instead, he wants his party members to focus on lowering the cost of living, ending the Iran war, and reversing tariff policies.
Notably, even before winning the midterm election, Democratic leaders had been calling for an impeachment resolution against Trump and investigations into his allies and staffers over activities carried out during the first two years of his presidency.
“The bigger priority for me, and I think for most people in America, especially people living paycheck to paycheck, is ‘please help us with the cost of living,’” Hamilton told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
He said the first and foremost focus should be on ending the Iran war and taking Trump-imposed tariffs back.
“If I spent the next two years — my first two years in the Senate — in investigations, I’d be deeply disappointed. I want to get to work helping the people in my state and helping the people across the country,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton says people see Schumer as ‘polarizing’
While several Democratic leaders have pushed back against calls for probes and impeachment, senior party leadership has made it clear that Democrats are all set to carry out investigations into Trump officials and his allies as they take control of both congressional chambers.
“Whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court and entangle him in legislative razor wire,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, told reporters on Wednesday.
Several Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin(D-Md.), who served as an impeachment manager during one of Trump’s impeachment trials in his first term, have floated the possibility of impeaching the president for a third time.
Adam Hamilton (D-Kan.) said that many people in Kansas view Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as “polarizing.”
‘Meet the Press’ host Kristen Welker asked Hamilton why he believed the top Senate Democrat was not the right leader for the party.
“I mean no disrespect for Chuck Schumer,” Hamilton told Welker. “And I’ve told him that as well. But I think, at least where I live in Kansas, he is kind of a polarizing figure.”
When asked who he would pick to succeed Schumer, Hamilton said there were “probably 10 senators … and those I know from brief conversations.”
“I’m not at a place where I can tell you, ‘This is my short list,'” he added. “There are a handful of people that I think are probably –– lead more from the center. But I don’t know enough yet to be able to say, ‘These are the people I would endorse.'”
