The Ohio Republican Party on Friday voted to censure U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) and called for his resignation over his vote earlier this year to impeach former President Donald Trump.
While the vote to censure was nearly unanimous, the measure calling for Gonzalez to resign passed by a simple majority, Ohio’s Statehouse News Bureau reports.
In attempting to justify the party’s action, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Paduchik called Trump’s second impeachment “an unconstitutional, politically motivated process that served no purpose.”
Gonzalez and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump following the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.
“The President of the United States helped organize and incite a mob that attacked the United States Congress in an attempt to prevent us from completing our solemn duties,” Gonzalez said at the time, explaining his vote.
“In doing so, five people have died — including a Capitol Police Officer — many more have been injured, and our democracy has been shaken,” he added. “During the attack itself, the President abandoned his post while many members asked for help, thus further endangering all present. These are fundamental threats not just to people’s lives but to the very foundation of our Republic.”
In February, the Wyoming Republican Party similarly censured Rep. Liz Cheney, the third highest-ranking House Republican, who also voted to impeach Trump. Cheney responded by standing her ground.
“People have been lied to,” she told Fox News at the time. “The extent to which the president, President Trump, for months leading up to Jan. 6 spread the notion that the election had been stolen or that the election was rigged ― was a lie.”
“We’ve never seen that kind of assault by the president of the United States on another branch of government,” she continued. “This is not something we can simply look past or pretend didn’t happen or try to move on. We’ve got to make sure this never happens again.”
Gonzalez’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.