Rep. Kendra Horn Clarifies Stance On Impeachment Inquiry

Rep. Kendra Horn’s office clarified her position on the impeachment inquiry, appearing to oppose the current version of the formal investigation, after calling for the release of a whistleblower report at the center of the controversy which sparked the probe.

“Congresswoman Horn takes the allegations seriously,” Horn’s chief of staff said in text message, Wednesday night. “She believes Congress and the American people deserve to know all of the facts before jumping to conclusions. The whistleblower law calls for a process to determine what happened and when. The Congresswoman believes this process should be conducted in a detailed, methodical, and responsible manner before any Congressional inquiry is initiated.”

Horn’s clarification however does not explicitly address how the Congresswoman feels about the inquiry now that it has been launched. A request for further clarification was not immediately returned.

At the time Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an official inquiry Horn appeared to be in support of at least a portion of the inquiry.

“This should be a detailed and responsible investigation and not one conducted in a media circus,” Horn said in a statement. “We should do the job we were sent here to do.”

The statement did not explicitly express any opposition to the formal inquiry, although did not explicitly support it either.

Horn called for the release of the whistleblower report at the center of the Ukrainian scandal which erupted early this week. The whistleblower complaint, which reportedly details concerns about a conversation in which President Donald Trump allegedly repeatedly pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate fmr. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s involvement in the ousting of Ukraine’s former top prosecutor. A partial transcript of the conversation released by the White House on Wednesday shows Mr. Trump did pressure Mr. Zelensky to investigate the Bidens as “a favor.”

The Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, initially blocked the complaints release to Congress, although release of such documents is required by law. The White House also reversed its decision to keep the complaint from Congress, releasing it Thursday morning. Maguire is set to testify in front of the House Intelligence committee Thursday as well.

Since talks of impeachment and investigation began in the House several months ago, Horn (D-OK5) has resisted the push for swifter action from her party’s more Liberal members.

The race for Horn’s district is expected to be one of the tightest in the country in 2020. She already has two Republican challengers and is the target of the Republican National Committee,  which believes it can return district to Republican control. Horn beat fmr. Rep. Steve Russell (R) by double-digits in 2016 in what was considered one of the most surprising upsets of the midterm elections.

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