When the House of Representatives votes on the articles of impeachment against President Trump on Wednesday, one of the Democrats certain to vote in favor is Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings. In doing so, Hastings will become the first sitting member of Congress to vote for the impeachment of a sitting president
WASHINGTON — When the House of Representatives votes on the articles of impeachment against President Trump on Wednesday, one of the Democrats certain to vote in favor is Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings.
More than that, the Hastings story is testament to the fact that impeachment — and even conviction by the Senate — need hardly be the end of a political career. Much like Trump, Hastings during his impeachment cast himself as the victim of an unfair process. Also like Trump, he flatly denied any wrongdoing, even when the evidence seemed plainly against him. Hastings — like Trump — even called his impeachment a “witch hunt,” although the then judge blamed racist Southerners.
“It’s no place I want to be,” Hastings told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel at the time. “But certainly I am in a very good position from the standpoint of having that perspective.” The same article called Hastings by the same nickname that Clinton had been given after his surprising second-place finish in the 1992 New Hampshire primary: the Comeback Kid.
And in 2014, the federal government paid $200,000 to a woman who accused Hastings of inappropriate sexual conduct. The alleged behavior, which he denied, allegedly took place in 2001. Two judges filed a complaint about Hastings with the 11th Circuit, which includes Florida, and that led, eventually, to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. recommending, in a 381-page report, that the House impeach him.
Near the end of those remarks, he grew emotional. “I ask you in the name of decency,” he said, “in the name of justice, in the name of the jury system — the American jury system — which fundamentally has been the underpinning of the constitutional fabric that all of us are adherents of.”
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