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South Florida Reps. Split Along Party Lines on 25th Amendment Vote to Remove Trump

NBC Miami / January 13, 2021

South Florida's three GOP members - Reps. Carols Gimenez, Mario Diaz-Balart and newly sworn in Maria Elvira Salazar - all voted against the resolution

The eight members of the United States House of Representatives representing South Florida districts voted along party lines in an effort calling on the removal of President Donald Trump using the 25th Amendment.

The House on Tuesday night approved a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump with a Cabinet vote and "declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office." The resolution passed, It was approved 223-205.

South Florida's three GOP members - Reps. Carlos Gimenez, Mario Diaz-Balart and the newly sworn-in Maria Elvira Salazar - all voted against the resolution.

"I cannot earnestly support a non-binding resolution that would have no effect in getting us closer to the truth or help heal our nation," Gimenez, the former Mayor of Miami-Dade County, said in a statement.

Salazar placed her vote after being sworn in earlier Tuesday, which was delayed after she was quarantined in her South Florida home after testing positive for COVID-19.

Only one Republican, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, voted for the resolution.

At the same time, the five Democratic members of the House from South Florida - Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson, Alcee Hastings and Ted Deutch - voted for the resolution.

Democrats proceeded even though Pence said he would not do what the resolution asked. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said it would not be in the best interest of the nation and it was "time to unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden."

Four Republican lawmakers, including third-ranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, announced they would vote to impeach Trump on Wednesday, cleaving the Republican leadership, and the party itself.