As Congress moves to impeach Donald Trump, the real question is how anyone in either party can stand in opposition.
The blood is on the president’s hands, his guilt established beyond doubt by his own words. In his infamous call to battle just before the mob launched its attack, Trump urged his supporters to “fight much harder” against “bad people” and to “show strength” as they marched on the Capitol.
“You have to show strength, and you have to be strong,” he said. “When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to play by different rules.”
He must be convicted, too, for his attempt to overturn a democratic election. The evidence, again, is irrefutable and based on his own words: “You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough,” he told them.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
For those who will oppose impeachment — such as the famously feckless Jeff Van Drew — the question is this: If inciting violence to overthrow a democratic election is not an impeachable offense, then what is?
It’s true that there is not enough time to cut short Trump’s term, and Sen. Mitch McConnell says he will make sure of that, and that the Senate would not begin to consider the issue until the day before Trump leaves office.
But the House must make this statement, if only to reaffirm that this is a nation of laws, to warn any future president that might mimic such grotesque behavior, and to give Trump, the worst president in American history, the distinction of being the only one who was impeached twice.
This fumigation must not end with Trump, however. If we are to protect our democracy, there must be consequences for all those who walked the planked with him these last few months, spreading his lies about the election, usually to save their own careers. They may not have incited the mob, but they wounded our democracy and helped set the conditions for this tragedy to unfold.
Van Drew deserves special scorn for peddling his phony outrage over election integrity the last few months, and if he had any decency, he would resign now and do charity work for the rest of his life.
The South Jersey congressman signed an amicus brief with 125 other House Republicans to support a Texas lawsuit that sought to subvert the election and overturn Biden’s win in December – a bid that was rejected by the Supreme Court.
And nearly a week after our nation’s government was attacked, Van Drew still amplifies the lie that the election was fraudulent, which is either tone-deaf or addled or just evidence that he will never relinquish his starring role as the president’s favorite toady.
Even after the riot was quelled Wednesday, with one person dead and some lawmakers scrambling for moral cover, Van Drew still rejected democracy by voting to obstruct the Electoral College vote, which is proof that he has trouble reading a room.
And because there should also be consequences for the cynical manipulation of Trump’s legions these last few months, the second-term representative needs to resign.
Van Drew’s continued refusal to acknowledge the results of a free and fair election is dangerous, and when he and the cabal of GOP lawmakers claimed without evidence that the election was stolen, it gave Trump the testosterone boost he needed these last few months to perpetuate his conspiratorial fantasies.
His former political opponent, Dr. Brigid Callahan Harrison, had it right Sunday when she wrote that Van Drew’s quest to overturn the election “continues his unique pattern of subverting the will of the people.”
Yet it is more than that. This is a moral issue, an accountability issue, and yes, an integrity issue. Van Drew renounced all of that when he pledged his “undying support” to Trump. He needs to move on.
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