(First Published Feb. 3, 2021)
Put America First? Make America Great Again? If Louisiana’s U.S. senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy follow Donald Trump’s populist commands, they will vote to convict him in his impeachment trial starting Monday.
Trump and his lying lackeys in Congress inspired a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. For that, Trump should be convicted and barred from future office. America won’t be great again if he can get elected again.
Will Cassidy and Kennedy put America First? America above lies? Above politics?
Senators – and millions of viewers -- will see horrific video and hear damning testimony proving that rioters who stormed our Capitol Building had swallowed Donald Trump’s lies, succumbed to his manipulation and acted on his exhortation to “fight like hell … when you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules.”
Trump whipped up his supporters for more than an hour:
“THIRD-WORLD COUNTRIES -- their elections are more honest … The SCAM of mail-in ballots … After this, we’re going to walk down and I’LL BE WITH YOU … Everyone here will soon be MARCHING to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard … We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves THROUGHOUT HISTORY … This is the MOST CORRUPT ELECTION in the history, maybe, OF THE WORLD … So let’s walk down PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE ...”
Trump rambled with delusions and lies, the same ones proved false by state and federal election officials, by every court up through the U.S. Supreme Court, by the FBI, by Homeland Security, by the Department of Justice.
But lies told over and over can produce true believers like those who cheered Trump on Jan. 6. We love you! Off they went with their Trump flags and zip-ties. Hang Mike Pence. Where’s Nancy Pelosi?
Five people died. Cause, effect? Yes. Criminal incitement to riot? Maybe. Worthy of impeachment? Yes. Worthy of conviction? Yes.
In court, criminal incitement might be a close call. But the U.S. Senate isn’t a court of law. It’s where, starting Monday, senators will weigh Trump’s ethics, conduct, election conspiracies and especially his direct connection to the riot and the people who died. The outcome should be obvious. Any senator will be hard-pressed to argue for acquittal on the evidence with a straight face, based what happened before the insurrection and the weeks leading up to it.
But many Republicans afraid of crossing Boss Trump and deep-red voters who buy his lies will argue that impeachment is overkill and unconstitutional – even though it happened before to a former official, and most non-partisan scholars believe it to be legal and proper.
What will Kennedy and Cassidy do? If they truly put America First, they’ll stand up not only for America but also for their own Republican Party, where ethics and courage have lately been in short supply.
— Paul Anger, 2nd Vice Chair, Jefferson Parish Democratic Executive Committee, Feb. 3, 2021