Our Rep Voted to Impeach

For John, BLUF:  Our Congresswoman, Lori Trahan, is taking her duties very seriously, and before she voted to Impeach President Trump a Second Time she explained why.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why I’m voting to impeach

Here is her justification, EMailed yesterday:

Later today, I will vote to impeach Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection.  I believe it’s my obligation to tell you why this step is necessary.

For more than two months, the President has used his platform as the leader of our nation to spread dangerous lies regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election.  He repeatedly used rhetoric designed to divide the American people and rile up his base.  And he even went so far as to pressure Georgia’s Secretary of State into finding votes to overturn their election results.

That alone was a despicable abuse of power.

But he didn’t stop there. President Trump spent weeks telling his supporters to flock to Washington to help overturn the will of the American people on January 6th, and when he addressed the crowd last Wednesday, he told them to go to the United States Capitol and “fight like hell” on his behalf.

Thousands of his supporters descended on the Capitol where they assaulted police officers, vandalized the building, hunted down elected officials they felt were disloyal to the President, and attacked our democracy.  In short, it was a failed insurrection, a failed attempt to overturn your votes and overthrow our government.

As I told you last week, the President bears direct responsibility for the attack and should have resigned that same evening.  Knowing that he would never willingly give up power, Vice President Pence should have invoked the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

Since neither the President nor his Vice President are capable of putting the future of our Democracy ahead of their own political ambitions, I will vote today to impeach Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection.

My thoughts are here:

1. I appreciate her openness regarding her Impeachment vote and her sense of duty to tell us.
2. The President has maintained that he won and the election is stolen.  While the Media and Democrats tell us that such allegations are baseless, they don't seem baseless to me.  I am willing to believe that Joe Biden won fair and square, buit my sense is that there was voter fraud and that the use of the term "baseless" is baseless, given some of the things we have seen on video.  We need more nuance.
3. Yes, the President has been telling those who voted for him that there was fraud and yes, he invited them to the Nation's Capitol to demostrate, as is their First Amendment Right.  The President's speech on 6 January didn't call for occupatoin of the Capitol Building.
4. I am not sure about the numbers involved in the occupation of the Capitol Building, but thousands seems a little over the top.  While bad things happened, there were only two deaths, one on each side.  While people feared for their lives, there were no kidnappings or hangings.
5. My understanding of the timeline is that the "assault" on the Capitol began before the President finished speaking on the Ellipse.  It is, per my computer map, 1.4 miles or a 31 minute walk.  What was going down was on track before the President's talk to the crowd on the Ellipse ended.  I don't see the President even casually provoking the actions on Capitol Hill.
6. I support Vice President Pence in his decision to not invoke the 25th Amendment.  The President isn't derranged.

I commend Representative Trahan for her forthrightness and openness, but I think she drew some wrong conclusions from the events surrounding the 6th of January.  Further, I think she acted in haste in voting to Impeach the President.

If, subsequently, the facts show the President did not cause the Occupation of Capitol Hill, how will this Impeachment be walked back?

Regards  —  Cliff