WASHINGTON—It was moments after the Democratic-led House voted to impeach President Trump that a freshman Republican departed the floor and expressed shock over how the president’s dealings with Ukraine had fueled an effort to remove him from office.
“It’s as if a car drove by and they saw it as a yellow car and we saw it as a green car,” said GOP Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee. “Their concept of right and wrong; our concept of right and wrong—the circles just don’t overlap anymore. I’m scared to death.”
Across the aisle, a 13-term House Democrat had come to a similar conclusion, but from his perspective, it was unthinkable that Republicans could give a pass to Mr. Trump after he pushed Ukraine to announce investigations into potential 2020 political rival Joe Biden.
“There are people here who are firmly ensconced in an alternate universe,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. “It’s just on completely different planes of being.”
The three-month impeachment battle that has consumed the Capitol crystallizes what amounts to a shadow over its politics, as the parties disagree over basic facts, over how Congress should conduct oversight of the executive branch, and over how lawmakers should treat one another in the process.
The House voted largely along party lines, passing two articles of impeachment.
Democrat
Republican
Independent
Voted against
party
Did not
vote
Greater Clinton margin of victory for the 2016 presidential election
80 pct.
pts.
Justin Amash (Ind., Mich.)
Left Republican party to become independent after announcing his support for impeachment.
60
40
Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii)
Voted present
20
0
Jared Golden
(D., Maine)
Voted against one article
Collin Peterson
(D., Minn.)
40
60
Greater Trump margin of victory for the 2016 presidential election
Jeff Van Drew (D., N.J.)
Elected a Democrat in 2018, he has said he will run as a Republican in 2020.
Note: Four vacant seats omitted.
Source: The House (whip count); The Cook Political Report (margin of victory)
While such differences have been evident throughout the Trump presidency, their mixture into an impeachment fight has elevated the matter and raised stark questions: Can the country get past such fundamental disagreements? Or will impeachments become more frequent, a consequence of mistrust and hardening views?
“I don’t think something as historic as this can just simply be moved on from,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R., Ga.). “It’s good that we’re fixing to have a two-week break and that we can get away from each other for a while.”
Asked if impeachment would be more frequent in the future, Mr. Green said, “It’s intuitively obvious that that’s going to be the case.”
Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga.) said that Republicans had already lowered the bar for impeachment by pursuing the removal of President Bill Clinton in 1998 following an affair with a White House intern, a case that grew out of a GOP-driven probe of a Clinton real-estate investment. “That was a classic witch hunt,” Mr. Johnson said. “You’re going to say that we’re embarking on a witch hunt?”
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The most bitter relationship may be the one between House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.). Earlier this month, in a report that concluded Mr. Trump had abused power, Mr. Schiff published call records showing that Mr. Nunes had frequent contacts between two figures at the center of the impeachment inquiry—Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and one of Mr. Giuliani’s indicted associates.
“We’ve been able to get our job done,” Mr. Schiff said of the relationship, noting that the two had been able to pass intelligence-authorization bills. Mr. Nunes declined to comment, saying, “I’m not acknowledging any questions.”
The bitterness hasn’t extended into every panel. The day after the impeachment vote, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D., N.J.) and Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the panel’s top Republican, did a joint television appearance on surprise medical billing after spending the weekend negotiating for wins in a must-pass bill keeping the government funded.
“You have to be able to compartmentalize in this business if you’re going to be successful,” Mr. Walden said. “Sometimes we’re sort of politically at each other’s throats, but we’re never personally that way.”
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Similarly, Mr. Johnson and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) had kind words for each other after wrangling last week in the House Judiciary Committee over Mr. Gaetz’s mention of past drug use by Mr. Biden’s son Hunter, when Mr. Johnson warned about the pot calling the kettle black. (Mr. Gaetz was once arrested for driving under the influence.)
“I love Hank—Hank always tells me if I ever get delayed at the Atlanta airport, I can stay at his house,” Mr. Gaetz said. Mr. Johnson said, “I really did not intend to hurt him.”
But it isn’t clear that such comments are more than a moment. Republicans gave hugs and support to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.) the day after the impeachment vote, after Mr. Trump suggested at a Michigan rally that her recently deceased husband had gone to hell, not heaven. She was moved by the gesture but wondered if it would last.
“Is this the time that people realize what we’re doing to each other?” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be naive.”
As far as relationships in the Capitol, “they’ll be repaired,” said Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.), who was a manager during the Clinton impeachment trial. “But it will take longer than usual.”
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
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