Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline is suddenly worried about furthering the political divide.
The Republican issued a statement Tuesday urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reconsider pursuing a second impeachment of President Trump in the wake of the pro-Trump domestic terror attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.
The attempt to impeach the president in his final days in office “will only further fuel the political divide among our citizens and will be detrimental to long-term efforts to unify our country,” Cline said in the statement.
The last we’d heard from Cline, last week, was a condemnation of those who had breached the Capitol that fell short of acknowledging really anything in terms of what had precipitated it.
“While people have a right to peaceably protest, those who breached the Capitol and assaulted Capitol Police officers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Violence is never the answer, and I condemn their actions in the strongest possible terms,” Cline said in a statement posted to his Twitter page.
The statement didn’t mention Trump’s efforts for weeks to sow political divide by repeatedly casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, in which Trump was defeated by Democratic nominee Joe Biden, by more than 7 million votes, four and a half percentage points, a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College.
The attack on the Capitol that led to the deaths of four people, including a Capitol Police officer, was preceded by a rally led by Trump ahead of the procedural vote in Congress to certify the Electoral College vote.
Trump, then, along with his personal lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, reportedly called at least two senators to try to gauge the possibility that the attack could lead to a delay in that procedural vote.
Members returned late in the evening on Wednesday to proceed, and ultimately certified the vote overnight.
Cline followed through with a pledge that he had made earlier in the week to vote to reject electoral votes cast for Biden.
Now, he’s worried about something fueling the political divide that could be detrimental to long-term efforts to unify our country.
“Both President Trump and President-elect Biden have called for a peaceful transition of power, so I would urge Speaker Pelosi to reconsider pursuing Articles of Impeachment. Now is a time to get back to work addressing the issues most important to the American people,” Cline said.
Story by Chris Graham
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