{"id":113031,"date":"2021-01-13T15:01:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T23:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=113031"},"modified":"2021-01-13T15:01:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T23:01:04","slug":"congressman-mcclintock-from-house-floor-in-opposition-to-impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=113031","title":{"rendered":"Congressman McClintock from House floor in Opposition to Impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Mr. Speaker: I didn\u2019t like the President\u2019s speech on January 6th.  I thought he was wrong to assert that the Vice President and Congress can pick and choose which electoral votes to count.  He was wrong to set such a confrontational tone in a politically tense situation. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ldYW6RDQo9g\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But what did he actually say?  His exact words were, \u201cI know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.\u201d   That\u2019s impeachable?  That\u2019s called freedom of speech. <\/p>\n<p>He also threatened to oppose candidates in future elections.  By the way, that was directed at Republicans like me who had resolved to uphold the constitutional process and protect the Electoral College.  So what?  That\u2019s called politics.<\/p>\n<p>If we impeached every politician who gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans, this Capitol would be deserted.  That\u2019s what the President did.  That\u2019s all he did.  He specifically told the crowd to protest \u201cpeacefully and patriotically.\u201d  The vast majority of them did. <\/p>\n<p>But every movement has a lunatic fringe. <\/p>\n<p>Suppressing free speech is not the answer; holding rioters accountable for their actions is the answer.  And we are.  IF we had prosecuted BLM and Antifa rioters across the country with the same determination these last six months, this incident may not have happened at all.<\/p>\n<p>Short of declaring war, the power of impeachment is the most solemn and consequential act that Congress can take.  To use it in this manner \u2013 in the heat of the moment, with no hearings, no due process, many members phoning in their votes after a hastily called debate, exactly one week before a new President is to take office, trivializes this power to the point of caricature. <\/p>\n<p>The Democrats have won everything in sight: the House, the Senate and the Presidency.   In a Republic, that calls for magnanimity by the victors.  Only in a banana republic does it call for vengeance.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin Franklin warned that \u201cPassion governs, and she never governs wisely.\u201d  In our passions this week we have set some dangerous new precedents that will haunt us for years to come.  Yesterday, we redefined intemperate speech as a physical incapacity requiring removal from office.  Today we define it as a high crime and misdemeanor.   <\/p>\n<p>The moment any member of this body gives an impassioned speech, and the lunatic fringe of their movement takes license from it, be prepared to answer to this new precedent we establish today.  I could cite plenty of provocative speeches made by Democrats that directly preceded violence this summer, but we\u2019ve already had enough of that.<\/p>\n<p>After 600,000 Americans had perished in the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln appealed to the \u201cbetter angels of our nature.\u201d  He said, \u201cWith malice toward none; with charity for all\u2026let us bind up the nation\u2019s wounds.\u201d  Those words were so important to the unity of the nation they are inscribed in marble at the Lincoln Memorial. <\/p>\n<p>I cannot think of a more petty, vindictive and gratuitous act than to impeach an already defeated President a week before he is to leave office.  President-elect Biden\u2019s promise to heal the nation becomes a hollow mockery in the harsh reality of this unconstitutional act. <\/p>\n<p>God help our Country.<\/p>\n<p># # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Mr. Speaker: I didn\u2019t like the President\u2019s speech on January 6th. I thought he was wrong to assert that the Vice President and Congress can pick and choose which electoral votes to count. He was wrong to set such a confrontational tone in a politically tense situation. But what did he actually say? His [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Fullscreen-capture-1132021-25919-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/113032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}