Democrats are pursuing a quick impeachment a week after President Donald Trump gave a speech they say incited insurrection. On Jan. 6, while Congress was in the process of counting Electoral Votes and certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, clashed with police, and forced lawmakers to pause their sessions and evacuate to safety.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, argued against impeaching Trump in the aftermath of last week’s attack and claimed that Republicans were treated unfairly when they raised repeated, unproven claims of fraud in the weeks after the Nov. 3 election. Jordan pointed out that some Democrats objected to Trump’s presidential victory in Jan. 2017, and said the suggestion that Republicans have been trying to overturn the election is unfair.
“Americans are tired of the double standard,” Jordan said, referring not only to pushback on Republicans’ objections, but also to criticisms by some in the Democratic Party that the rioters at the Capitol were treated less harshly than protesters at Black Lives Matter rallies over the summer.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., defended some Democrats’ decision to object to Trump’s victory in 2017, saying they did so over concerns that Russia had interfered in the election, but also noted that they accepted Trump’s victory and never tried to overturn the results of that election.
McGovern accused Jordan of making “whataboutisms” and “false equivalences” and ignoring the reality of the insurrection last week he said resulted from the unfounded claims that the election was stolen from Trump. “This Capitol was stormed; people died because of the big lies that were being told by this president and by too many people on the other side of the aisle. Enough. People should be outraged as to what happened,” McGovern said. “If this is not an impeachable offense, I don’t know what the hell is,” he added.
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