“I had stepped off the floor to make a phone call,” Turner said in an interview with the Dayton Daily News just off the House floor. “I stepped back on, the votes were in a different order.”
Turner was one of five Republicans who voted to kill a GOP resolution to censure U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a Democrat who was involved in a shoving match with federal agents at an immigration detention facility in her New Jersey district.
The GOP plan would not only have censured McIver, but also removed her from the House Homeland Security Committee. The measure was defeated on a vote of 215-207.
“I filed a correction indicating that I was for the removal,” Turner said, noting that his explanation would be included in the Congressional Record.
“It did not change the outcome,” the Dayton Republican added.
While voting mistakes are rare — they do happen from time to time in the House and Senate.
A search of the Congressional Record showed that Turner last corrected one of his votes four years ago. Turner submitted a statement then which said he ‘inadvertently’ voted against a plan to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol.
“I intended to vote Yes,” Turner said on June 30, 2021.
Turner said a similar explanation will be included in the Congressional Record in coming days.
One Republican who also voted against the McIver censure said the GOP effort to punish McIver was premature, arguing the full House Ethics Committee should first take up any case against her.
“We have an ethics investigation,” said U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who joined Turner, and U.S. Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, in voting against the McIver sanction. “When they complete their report then we should act.”
McIver is slated to stand trial in November. Video clearly shows her jostling with federal agents in a chaotic scene where Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested.
The charges against Baraka were later dropped. He has sued federal officials for defamation and malicious prosecution.
The visits by Democratic lawmakers to immigration detention facilities have spurred controversy in recent months. Under federal law, members of Congress are allowed to show up unannounced for oversight visits — but Democrats have repeatedly been denied access by Trump administration officials.
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