[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 22 (Friday, February 5, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REPUBLICANS, IF THIS ISN'T IMPEACHABLE, WHAT IS?

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM KINZINGER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, February 5, 2021

  Mr. KINZINGER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to include in the 
Congressional Record an opinion-editorial piece written by two of my 
good friends and colleagues, Former Representatives Barbara Comstock of 
Virginia and Charles Boustany of Louisiana, which was printed in Roll 
Call on February 4, 2021.

       On Jan. 6, 2021, at 2:24 p.m., an angry Donald Trump 
     tweeted: ``Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what 
     should have been done to protect our country and our 
     Constitution . . .''
       At that very moment, Vice President Pence and his family 
     were hiding from a violent mob at the Capitol, having been 
     whisked out of the Senate chamber where he had been 
     conducting his constitutional duty of certifying the 
     election.
       Over the course of the afternoon, the crowds shouted ``Hang 
     Mike Pence,'' ``President Trump sent us,'' ``Traitors,'' 
     ``Nancy Pelosi, we're coming for you'' and other frightening 
     and direct threats to members of Congress. This violent 
     insurrection culminated in five deaths, including a Capitol 
     Police officer, and 140 other officers were injured 
     protecting members. During this time, the president and his 
     attorney called at least one senator to ask him to delay the 
     count further.
       ``The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president 
     and other powerful people,'' Senate Republican leader Mitch 
     McConnell said. At a rally near the White House that morning, 
     Trump spoke apocalyptically, warning, ``If you don't fight 
     like hell, you aren't going to have a country anymore.'' 
     Trump lied that he had won in a ``landslide.'' He had to know 
     this was a lie because his pollster had already issued a 
     lengthy report detailing why he lost. Donald Trump Jr. wildly 
     shouted at the rally, ``We are coming after you,'' directed 
     at members of Congress who were doing their constitutional 
     duty of certifying the election.
       Many of those arrested at the Capitol echoed Donald Trump 
     and his lies. They said, ``We were invited here by the 
     president of the United States.'' Rioters included members of 
     the Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists and white 
     nationalists who ripped off the helmets of officers, beat 
     them with batons and flagpoles, and hurled racial epithets at 
     our Capitol Police. Some came with zip ties, presumably to 
     take hostages. At the end of the day, Trump recorded a video 
     message, saying to those who stormed the Capitol, ``You're 
     very special. . . . We love you.''
       In the months and days leading to Jan. 6, these election 
     fraud lies that Trump whipped up the crowd with had been 
     rejected across the board:
       By dozens of conservative judges in over 60 court cases who 
     said they were ``without merit'' and ``not credible.''
       By Attorney General William Barr who said, ``We have not 
     seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different 
     outcome,'' and reportedly called the claims of the 
     president's lawyer ``bulls---.''
       By Republican state election officials in Georgia, whom the 
     president belligerently attacked and asked to ``find'' him 
     more votes.
       By his own White House counsel's office.
       Nevertheless, Donald Trump persisted. Even after the worst 
     of the siege was visible for the world to see, he tweeted, 
     ``These are the things and events that happen when a sacred 
     landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously 
     stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and 
     unfairly treated for so long.''
       We Republicans cannot avert our eyes from these violent 
     realities. Some say we must move on. But it is clear that 
     Trump and his mob still aren't moving on. Trump, his family 
     and supporters continue to threaten political revenge and 
     have shown no remorse for their actions. Angry Trump 
     supporters continue to make dangerous threats.
       ``If this isn't impeachable, what is?'' has been the 
     question asked even by friends of Trump, such as former New 
     Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Such blatant anti-constitutional, 
     anti-democratic actions by a president and the violence he 
     inspired against a coequal branch of government cannot go 
     unpunished. They were unprecedented.
       The president attempted to use his executive power to 
     direct Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William 
     Barr and other Republican officials to pursue anti-
     constitutional actions on his behalf.
       As for whether a trial can be held after the president has 
     left office, retired federal appeals court Judge Michael 
     McConnell, a conservative, has pointed out that impeachment 
     in the House occurred while the president was still in 
     office, so that point is moot. Article 1, Section 3, Clause 6 
     of the Constitution states: ``The Senate shall have the sole 
     Power to try all Impeachments.'' According to Judge 
     McConnell, a trial is not limited to ``sitting officers.'' If 
     it was, there would be no consequence to a president who 
     engaged in impeachable conduct at the end of his term,
       The Senate must convict Donald Trump and keep him from 
     holding office ever again. This is not a close call. Trump 
     refused to accept the results of an election. He ignored the 
     courts and even attacked the Supreme Court with three of his 
     own appointees. He incited a mob to stop the certification of 
     the election in Congress. And he tried to illegally overturn 
     an election in violation of his oath to uphold the law.
       Already the House impeachment has been the most bipartisan 
     impeachment in history. Republicans must stand up to police 
     our own. If Republicans continue to excuse Trump's lies and 
     actions that they know are among the worst in history by a 
     president, they will only further divide, not just our own 
     party, but the entire country.
       Barbara Comstock represented Virginia's 10th District as a 
     Republican from 2015 to 2019.
       Charles Boustany Jr. represented Louisiana in the House as 
     a Republican from 2005 to 2017. He serves as president of the 
     Association of Former Members of Congress.

                          ____________________