Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Monday on MSNBC’s “All In” that the point of impeachment was to “protect the Republic” from former President Donald Trump and prevent him from holding federal office in the future.
Raskin said, “We intend to show the worst presidential crime against the Republic in American history. The violence was terrifying and overwhelming. Five people died, police officer hit over the head with a fire extinguisher, police officers beat up, grabbed, pushed, shoved, jostled.”
He continued, “Wednesday, January 6 was not some random arbitrary day chosen by the president and the organizers of this rally. This was the day that Congress met in joint session, the House and the Senate, to count the Electoral College votes that had been certified by 50 states and the District of Columbia, so this was the very last step in the ratification of the popular vote which meant more than 7 million votes for the Biden/Harris ticket and the Electoral College vote which was 306-232, the exact margin exactly that Trump had won by in 2016 which he declared to be a landslide. This was the last opportunity. We find out more and more every day. The president was willing to use any means, unlawful, lawful, lawless, violence, whatever. He was willing to incite insurrection against the United States in order to nullify the actual Electoral College vote that was to be counted and to try essentially to derail that election and to get himself reinstalled as president of the United States. That is a ghastly crime against the Republic.”
He added, “One thing that I want to point out is that impeachment is not so much nearly about the past as it is about the future. The framers of the Constitution put impeachment, conviction and disqualification from further federal office holding in the Constitution to protect the Republic, to preserve the Constitution. That’s why it’s in there. President Trump or any other Trump who’s impeached and convicted doesn’t send a single minute in jail. It is not a criminal prosecution. It is a protective, civil action to guard the Republic against someone who’s committed high crimes and misdemeanors against the people and proven himself to be a danger to the country.”
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