Adam Schiff’s closing speech Tuesday (3:30)

The January 6th Special Committee has done a masterful job of putting together the time line and the actions and actors that led to the full blown attempt at overthrowing the legitimately elected government of the United States on January 6th, 2021. 

There is little doubt that the moving force behind the attempted overthrow of government was the then sitting president, Donald Trump. There was little doubt on that day who the moving force behind the coup attempt. It was pretty much out in the open.

Even immediately after, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy pointed to Trump as the instigator:  

“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy said on the House floor. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump.”

As did Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell:  

“Following Saturday’s vote acquitting former President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., excoriated Trump for his actions on the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, calling them a “disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

But he said ultimately, he did not vote to convict the former president because of constitutional concerns.

“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said shortly after the 57-43 Senate vote that ended in the former president’s acquittal.

“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” he said, “and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

It was clear January 6th and is being made strikingly more clear now. Yet Iowa’s Republican delegation chose to ignore what was plainly obvious. Senators Grassley and Ernst ignored the obvious and voted to acquit the traitor. Grassley:   

“We do not have the authority to try a private citizen like former President Trump. Even if we did, he should have been accorded the protections of due process of law in his trial. And even if we assume he has been, the House Managers still did not prove that he committed incitement to insurrection, the specific crime of which he stands accused. This does not excuse President Trump’s conduct on and around January 6th of this year,” Grassley said in a statement. “It satisfies my oath as a U.S. Senator in this court of impeachment. I therefore voted to acquit.”

Ernst:

Ernst released a statement on Twitter saying in part: “The bottom line for this impeachment trial: Donald Trump is no longer in office, he is a private citizen.”

Iowa’s Republicans in the House did little better: 

“Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson said in a statement Wednesday she believes the president does bear responsibility for the riots, but said impeachment is the wrong path forward.

Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra said he will be voting against impeachment. Mariannette Miller-Meeks also said she opposes impeachment.”

Note to Grassley and Ernst – Trump was the President when he committed his treason. That he was a private citizen when the vote was taken did not matter. That is the way justice works.

There was little Iowans could do at the time to let these people know that their decision to let Trump commit a crime and be let free was wrong. But time marches on and we are now looking at an election. All 5 of Iowa’s Republicans must be held accountable for their votes to send a person who tried to overthrow OUR government free. Because of them, Trump and his fellow traitors are planning the next coup.

If our laws mean nothing, then why even have laws? Grassley, Ernst, Miller-Meeks, Hinson and Feenstra all made a public display of their disdain for our laws. For that reason alone they must be defeated at the polls and WE THE PEOPLE must reassert that we are a nation of laws!

Grassley and the Republican delegation have shown they do not have the judgment to hold the highest elected positions in this country. When they are called on to make decisions for the good of the country their judgment must not be clouded by their loyalty to a person over the country.