The Governor of Vermont is the first Republican chief executive to publicly come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Governor Phil Scott said at a press conference Thursday that he isn’t surprised about the allegations against the president because he has “watched him over the years.”

Scott is a frequent critic of Trump so maybe it should be said that this stance by Vermont’s governor isn’t surprising, either. He can have the satisfaction, I guess, that he’s the first Republican governor to publicly support the Democrats’ impeachment agenda.

When pressed by reporters, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday he was withholding judgment. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan have yet to comment.

Governor Scott said that Congress has a “solemn responsibility” to pursue its role in the checks and balances in impeachment proceedings. He couched his call for starting the impeachment process by cautioning Congress that the process is serious and “should not be taken lightly or abused.” To which I say, “fat chance, governor.” House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff began Thursday’s hearing with acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire by literally making a mockery out of the transcript from the telephone call in question between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky. When he was called out on it, he called it a parody. How are House Democrats to be taken seriously when the chairman of an important committee opens with a parody instead of the actual memo, which he had in front of him?

Governor Scott is simply following along with the Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans eager to bring the impeachment circus to town. This hearing was held because of a complainant’s second-hand accusations that were filed against President Trump over his behavior during a telephone conversation with a foreign leader. Scott wants to boldly go there but can’t quite do it. He seems to want impeachment but is trying to show a minimum of restraint about a full-on impeachment trial in the Senate. He’s encouraging the House to carry on with their show hearings and then vote for the impeachment to move forward.

Scott previously criticized President Trump’s tweet that members of The Squad should go back to their countries. He called the remark “racist” and not befitting of the president.

It is interesting to hear Governor Scott temper his enthusiasm for impeachment. Thursday morning former Gov. John Kasich, a fierce Trump critic after failing to defeat him for the Republican nomination in 2016, also spoke with an abundance of caution during an interview on CNN’s New Day. I watched as Kasich was careful to not say Trump was guilty of anything specifically – yet- but that the conversation is questionable and should be checked out. Alisyn Camarota did her best to get Kasich, normally only too happy to lash out against Trump, to go further but he didn’t do so. Kasich even said that Speaker Pelosi “moved too fast.” Again, I was surprised at his cautious approach in this interview.

"It made me sick," says former Ohio Gov. John Kasich about the White House transcript of the Ukraine call. But he is not yet convinced that this warrants impeachment and says that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "moved forward too fast."https://t.co/OK3mlXoJrW pic.twitter.com/X4eviPbfKF

— New Day (@NewDay) September 26, 2019

You’ll note in that clip that Kasich says he doesn’t support Trump and will not support him but Democrats are operating on emotion and wanting a pound of flesh. He’s right in that thought. Pelosi jumped the gun to call for impeachment inquiries to move forward before she even saw the complaint or the transcript memo. She caved to the demands of her far-left members. The “Do Something” chorus won this one. If today’s House Intelligence hearing is any indication as to how the House proceeds moving forward, there isn’t much “there” there.