Rep. Herrera Beutler censured over Trump impeachment vote

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Members of Washington's Clark County Republican party voted this week to formally censure Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, of Battle Ground, over her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump.

In a rowdy gathering at a church on Tuesday, the Clark County Republican Party pledged to withhold funds from Herrera Beutler’s future campaigns unless she appears in person at the group's meeting in May to “explain her action,” The Columbian reported.

The resolution passed by a wide margin.

The resolution was introduced by precinct committee officer Carolyn Crain. Crain said she was the first volunteer to work for Herrera Beutler during the congresswoman’s first campaign in 2010.

“She violated my trust and it broke my heart," Crain said.

The censure criticized the impeachment process as lacking proper procedure. Herrera Beutler offered to testify during the Senate’s trial, though the body didn’t take her up on it.

She voted to impeach Trump because he “incited a riot intended to halt the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. That riot led to five deaths,” Herrera Beutler wrote in a Jan. 12 statement.

Committee members also pledged to vet and select another conservative Republican candidate to champion in the 2022 primaries.

A video recording of the event showed about a hundred people gathered. Virtually none of the attendees filmed were following COVID-19 social distancing measures or wearing face masks.

Joey Gibson, founder of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and a precinct committee officer in the county Republican party, can be seen in the video. Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a prominent local member of the Proud Boys, a neofascist organization that describes itself as “Western chauvinists,” served as the meeting’s sergeant at arms.

The Washington State Republican Party also publicly rebuked Herrera Beutler over her vote.