Now that the marathon impeachment hearings have been put on hold as members of Congress leave town for a week, members of the Virginia delegation are hearing from their constituents about impeachment.
Democratic Congressman Don Beyer heard from dozens of constituents Thursday night at an impeachment town hall
in Alexandria. People raised concerns about everything from emoluments and bribery to whistleblowers and foreign service professionals.
The vast majority of people who spoke here said President Trump deserves to be impeached, although a handful of speakers said it was all a deep state hoax perpetrated by people who hate the president. Mike Webb is a Republican who wore a Trump hat to the event, and he says he was happy to hear both sides. “I was glad to see the opposite side out. Generally the Republicans don’t come out. They don’t run for office," Webb noted, particularly in Northern Virginia. "They don’t come to the polls. So it was good to see them here.”
Beyer says two-thirds of the correspondence he gets is in favor of impeachment, and the speakers at the public forum were along the same lines. “If there’s one common theme, it was that we need to get over the divisiveness in our country.”
Beyer says he’s been so busy with the day-to-day grind of Congress that people in the audience had probably seen more of the impeachment hearings than he had, although he frequently tweeted and retweeted comments and coverage of the hearings. He’ll have a chance to catch up on the replays next week when Congress is out of session.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
