‘There’s way more hate in this business than there ever used to be’: Retiring lawmaker reflects on state of politics

Democratic Rep. Denny Heck will leave Congress with a sense of gratitude and privilege for his time in office, but he laments that politics has become a lot more ugly and filled with vitriol in recent years.

“There’s way more hate in this business than there ever used to be,” Heck said in an interview with CNN this week.

Heck has represented Washington’s tenth district in Congress since 2013 and before that served as a member of the Washington state House of Representatives. The congressman has been on the front lines of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump as a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Not long before the House voted to impeach the President, Heck announced plans to retire after serving out his current term. He said at the time that he felt “weary,” and would “never understand how some of my colleagues” were able to “ignore or deny the President’s unrelenting attack on a free press, his vicious character assassination of anyone who disagreed with him, and his demonstrably very distant relationship with the truth.”

The Washington state Democrat believes that President has contributed to what he describes as a “completely debased civic discourse,” though he argues that Trump is not so much the root cause of rising animosity in politics, but rather a symptom of broader problems afflicting American public life.

“His behavior amplifies and accelerates certain trends,” Heck said of the President. “He has no capacity for a sense of shame or even an ounce of humility to acknowledge when his actions or words may have hurt others.”

Referencing Trump’s attacks at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast targeting Democrats and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney who voted to convict Trump on an abuse of power charge in the Senate impeachment trial, Heck called it difficult to “imagine anything more profoundly inappropriate” than the President using that forum “to demonize his political opponents,” asking, “Is nothing sacred?”

The partisan divide may have grown deeper in Washington in the wake of a contentious impeachment proceeding — and tensions were on full display when the President delivered his most recent State of the Union address to Congress. At the beginning of the night, the President appeared to snub House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by ignoring her attempt at a handshake, and Pelosi later ripped up her copy of the President’s speech after he concluded the address.

Heck says that both Democrats are Republicans are “violators” when it comes to how partisan politics have become, adding, “I wouldn’t even exempt myself on occasion.” The congressman said, “I don’t pretend to be perfect,” and said that he asks people back in his district to hold him accountable “for not demonizing people with whom I disagree.”

Heck argues that the President will be “impeached forever,” regardless of his acquittal by the Senate, but says it was disappointing that no House Republicans voted for the articles of impeachment. “I guess I would have hoped there would have been more Mitt Romneys,” he said.

One moment during the impeachment inquiry that stands out to the congressman took place when closed-door depositions were still underway. He described a Democratic colleague saying to him, “What would it take? What would it take for these guys to acknowledge the reality of the wrongdoing that has occurred?”

“Unfortunately, when all is said and done, the answer is abundantly clear,” Heck said. “There is nothing that could have. It is as though the President’s boast that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and get away with it was manifest. That takes its toll.”

The congressman argues, however, that the number of Republicans who have announced their own plans to retire during Trump’s time in office shows that there is a feeling of weariness on both sides of the aisle.

“I don’t think there is any question that there are Republicans leaving Congress because they don’t want to be part of Trump-style politics,” he said.

Asked what he thinks the consequences will be of Trump’s impeachment by the House and acquittal by the Senate, Heck said of the President, “What he does is to degrade norms and institutions. The real question here is, can they be restored?”

He says he is hopeful that there will at some point be a “return of decency,” but believes the worst-case scenario would be a “trend toward authoritarianism,” saying there are already elements of that in the President’s “war with the press” and his administration’s use of “disinformation and propaganda.”

Looking beyond the impeachment fight, Heck says that when he leaves Congress he will miss “the almost daily opportunity” to be exposed to new and interesting ideas and people, and feels “grateful” and “humbled” for the time he has had to spend in office.

And despite the partisan divide that permeates Capitol Hill, Heck will be leaving with friendships on both sides of the aisle.

“The paradox of this all is there are members of Congress across the aisle who I still have a good relationship with, who I like, and many of whom, I respect and who are good people,” he said.

Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a close and outspoken Trump ally, is one of the people that Heck says, “I enjoy being around very much personally,” though he added, “but gosh darn, he’s wrong on everything.”

“There are other people with whom I disagree with on an awful lot, but I keep looking for ways to work with them where we do agree,” he said.

“How do we get to ‘yes’ when we can? That’s one of our jobs.” Heck said.

“You have to be able to compartmentalize if you’re going to function as a legislator in a country or city or a state that is made up of different points of view.”