© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Londrigan Supports Impeachment Inquiry, Sees 'Clear Wrongdoing' By Trump

Democratic congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.
Betsy Dirksen Londrigan
Democratic congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.

Democratic congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan said she supports the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump and doesn’t think it should stop other work from getting done in Washington, D.C.

Londrigan is headed for a rematch against incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Republican from Taylorville who opposes the impeachment inquiry. Trump won Davis’ 13th Congressional District by 5 percentage points in 2016.

Londrigan said the whistleblower complaint related to Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president on July 25 showed “clear wrongdoing” by the president. Trump asked the Ukrainian leader for “a favor” — to investigate potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.

Londrigan said the House is “appropriately exercising its oversight authority.”

“I don’t know how any American would not support getting to the facts when it’s alleged that there was an invitation for foreign interference in our election,” Londrigan said. “That’s about our national security.”

Over the past week Londrigan’s social media accounts have been largely silent on the impeachment issue, except for a single tweet asking for the whistleblower complaint to be released. (It later was.)

Why is Londrigan taking a different approach than many other more vocal Democrats?

“I’ve been out in the district a lot, and I can tell you that what I’m still hearing from people is questions about how we’re gonna lower the cost of their prescription drugs and other out-of-pocket costs for health care,” Londrigan said. “These are the real-life, everyday issues that people talk to me about on a regular basis.

“I’ve been very clear about supporting this inquiry, because I believe that all Americans deserve the facts behind this.”

Londrigan also pushed back on Davis’ claim that the impeachment inquiry will make it impossible to work on other legislation.

“I don’t know any regular person who has the luxury of only focusing on one thing, at their job, in their life. Our elected representatives need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. There’s no reason they can’t do both—passing legislation to help people … and getting to the facts behind this whistleblower complaint and inquiry that Americans are waiting for and deserve.”

Davis beat Londrigan in 2018 by just 2,058 votes. The 13th Congressional District includes parts of Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, and Springfield.

Copyright 2019 WGLT

Ryan Denham started his career as a copy editor and later business and city government reporter at The Pantagraph in 2006. He later worked for WJBC radio in Bloomington. He now works in website development for Illinois State University and is a freelance reporter for WGLT.