Trump impeachment DOA? Democrats don’t have the votes to convict
Daily News Article — Posted on February 3, 2021
Read a speech by Sen. Paul at the U.S. Senate on January 26 regarding the impeachment of Donald Trump (see video below):
(by Senator Rand Paul, C-Span) — This impeachment is nothing more than a partisan exercise designed to further divide the country.
Democrats claim to want to unify the country but impeaching a former president, a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity.
Democrats brazenly appointing a pro-impeachment Democrat to preside over the trial is not fair or impartial and hardly encourages any kind of unity in our country.
No, unity is the opposite of this travesty we are about to witness.
If we are about to try to impeach a president, where is the Chief Justice [of the Supreme Court]? If the accused is no longer president, where is the constitutional power to impeach him?
Private citizens don’t get impeached. Impeachment is for removal from office and the accused here has already left office.
Hyper-partisan Democrats are about to drag our great country down into the gutter of rancor and vitriol the likes of which has never been seen in our nation’s history.
Instead of doing the nation’s work with their new majorities in the House, the Senate, and the Executive branch, Democrats are wasting the nation’s time on a partisan vendetta against a man no longer in office. It’s almost as if they have no ability to exist except in opposition to Donald Trump. Without him as their boogieman, they might have to legislate and to actually convince Americans that their policy prescriptions are the right ones.
Democrats are about to do something no self-respecting senator has ever stooped to. Democrats are insisting the election is actually not over and so they insist on regurgitating the bitterness of the election. This acrimony they are about to unleash has never before been tried. Why? Because calmer heads have typically prevailed in our history and allowed public opinion to cast blame where blame is deserved.
This sham of an impeachment will ostensibly ask whether the president incited the reprehensible behavior and violence of January 6 when he said,
“I know everyone here will soon march to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
“Peacefully and patriotically.” Hardly words of violence.
But what of Democrat words? What of Democrat incitement to violence?
No Democrat will honestly ask whether [Democratic-Socialist Senator] Bernie Sanders incited the shooter that nearly killed [Republican Congressman] Steve Scalise and volunteer coach. The shooter nearly pulled off a massacre. I was there because he [the shooter] fervently believed the false and inflammatory rhetoric spewed by Bernie and other Democrats such as “the Republican health care plan for the uninsured is that you die.” Is this about Bernie supporter shot Steve Scalise nearly killing him and shot one of our coaches and two or three of our staff, he screamed, “This is for health care.”
Ask me or anyone if that’s incitement.
No Democrat will ask whether [Democratic Senator] Cory Booker incited violence when he called for his supporters to “get up in their face” of Congress people, a very visual and specific incitement.
No Democrat will ask whether [Democratic Congresswoman] Maxine Waters incited violence when she literally told her supporters, and I quote,
“If you see a member of the Trump administration at a restaurant, at a department store, at a gas station or any place, you create a crowd and you push back on them.”
Is that not incitement?
My wife and I were pushed and surrounded and screamed at by this same type of mob that Maxine likes to inspire. It’s terrifying to have a swarm of people threatening to kill you, cursing at you and literally holding you hostage until police come to your rescue. That night we were assaulted by the crowd, I wasn’t sure if we’d survive even with the police protection.
But no Democrat has ever considered impeaching Maxine for her violent rhetoric.
In fact, Republicans, to our credit, have never once thought it legitimate to formally censor or impeach these Democrats. No Republican has sought to use the government to hold these Democrats responsible for Antifa and Black Lives Matter violence that has consumed our cities all summer, resulting in over a billion dollars of destruction, looting and property damage, not one Republican said, “oh, let’s impeach the Democrats who are inciting this” — because it would be ridiculous.
Many on the Democrat side of the aisle cheered them [Antifa and BLM rioters] on. Kamala Harris famously offered to pay the bill for those who were arrested. I wonder if she’ll be brought up on charges of inciting violence for that now that she is vice president. Should Kamala Harris be impeached for offering to pay for violent people to get out of jail who have been burning our cities down? No.
And no Republican has offered that because we’re not going down the road the Democrats have decided, this low road of impeaching people for political speech.
Should Republicans impeach the Democrat mayor of Seattle who incited and condoned violence by calling the armed takeover of part of her city a “Summer of Love”? Did any Republicans try to impeach her? On June 8, the New York Post citing U.S. Justice Department statistics reported that more than 700 law enforcement officers were injured during the Antifa/Black Lives Matter riots. There were at least 19 murders including 77-year-old retired police officer David Dorn.
Yet Democrats insist on applying a test of incitement to a Republican that they refuse to apply to themselves.
I want the Democrats to raise their hands if they have ever given a speech that says “take back,” “fight for your country.” Who hasn’t used the words “fight” figuratively, and are we going to put every politician in jail or are we going to impeach every politician who has used the words “fight” figuratively in a speech?
Shame. Shame on these angry, unhinged partisans who are putting forth this sham impeachment. Deranged by their hatred of the former president.
Shame on those who seek blame and revenge and who choose to pervert a constitutional process while doing so.
I want this body on record, every last person here. Is this how you think politics should be?
Look, we have now got crazy partisans on the other side of the aisle trying to censor and remove two of the Republican senators for their political position. Now, look, I disagree. I don’t think Congress should overturn the Electoral College. But impeaching or censoring or expelling a member of Congress you disagree with?
Is the truth so narrow that only you know the truth? We now have the media on your side saying there is only one set of facts, one set of truth and you can only interpret it this way. Now we have seven senators on the other side trying to expel, censor, or impugn two senators on this side. And I defend them, not because I defend their position. I disagreed with their position, but you can’t impeach, censor or expel people you disagree with. What’s this coming to?
In a few minutes, I will insist on a vote to affirm that this proceeding we are about to enter is unconstitutional, that impeachment of a private citizen is illegal and essentially a bill of attainder. And that no sense of fairness or due process would allow the judge in the proceeding to be a partisan Democrat already on favor of the impeachment.
A sham, this is, a travesty. A dark blot on the history of our country.
I urge my colleagues to reconsider this kangaroo court and move forward to debate the great issues of our day. With that, I’d like to relinquish the last moment or two of my time to the senator from Wisconsin.
From the January 26, 2021 U.S. Senate Session
Background
In Sept. 2020, Sen. Paul, his wife and a female friend were attacked by an angry mob of BLM "protesters" as they left President Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in September 2020. Watch here.
On Jan. 26, 2021 Sen. Paul discusses election fraud on ABC News
Over the past several years, numerous Trump supporters and Trump administration officials have been threatened and accosted. No Trump supporters have done the same to Democrats or to supporters or officials of President Obama or any other Democrat. There were 150,000 Trump supporters attending President Trump's speech on Jan. 6. The president was still speaking when a few hundred people went into the Capitol building.
- In March 2016, at a Trump rally, an off-duty police officer said "Protesters [against Trump] were ‘the most hateful…people I’ve ever seen’"
- January 2017, Democrats and leftists "Trump Inauguration" did not accept Trump's victory and planned to shut down his inauguration parade.
- In Nov. 2017, "Networks ignore serious threats against Trump Cabinet member"
- In June 2017, a Bernie Sanders supporter gunman ambushed members at a Republican congressional baseball practice in Washington, shooting off 70 rounds at them. Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was critically wounded and nearly died. Two Capitol Police officers and a House GOP aide were also shot. The gunman had a list of several Republican representatives in his pocket. The shooter had lashed out against President Trump and Republicans over social media. Rep. Scalise spent months in the hospital and took months more to fully recover. The gunman was a Bernie Sanders supporter enraged at the Republicans' healthcare plan that Sen. Sanders spoke out against at length.
- See an Oct. 2018 cartoon "Angry Mob"