Michigan Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI-06) told Michigan Public Radio (MPR) Wednesday that he supports an investigation into President Donald Trump’s actions with Ukraine, but said he doesn’t approve of an impeachment inquiry. Upton says he needs more information to support an impeachment inquiry.
“It’s too early to judge, it really is,” Upton said. “We had a vote last week to table it. I voted with all my Republican [sic], it was a partisan vote. There are a lot of questions that are legitimate that we all are going to want answers to.”
After the MPR interview, Upton attended an event at the Detroit Economic Club the same day and further expanded on the Trump-Ukraine scandal. According to the Detroit Free Press, he told the crowd that “we need to know what the answers are” when referring to the Ukranian situation.
“I’m not for the formal, you know, the impeachment inquiry that came up last week, but it is the right of any committee … I think there are legitimate questions that have to be asked and people are going to be required to answer them,” Upton said, according to the Washington Post.
The Michigan representative released a statement on September 26 after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry after Trump’s phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky became public.
“I’ve been clear – these developments are disconcerting, but this is an arduous process. There are some people who may want to use this to grind our entire government to a halt, but I’m not one of them,” he said.
In the past, Upton, who is considered a moderate Republican, has been one of the few conservatives who has been critical of the president. For instance, he was one of four Republicans to condemn Trump’s tweets about “The Squad” in July.
Upton has not gone as far as Michigan House Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI-03) who told The Hill Tuesday he supports impeachment inquiries.
“Yes. Assuming the articles are drafted properly, yeah, I think there’s impeachable conduct that could be included in articles that I would support,” he said.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
Photo “Fred Upton” by Fred Upton.
