As a life-long registered and just barely politically active Republican (but at a very low level), I write to say how totally distressed I am with some (not all, but most) of the members of the Utah delegation to the House and the Senate.
1. I do not believe that anyone of you (elected officials), if he is at least a little bit honest, can state categorically that D. J. Trump will tell the truth if he thinks he can profit by distorting the truth (I call that “lying”). His reputation for lying has been proven too many times to count. Google “veracity of statements by Donald Trump.”
2. So when he says that he did not incite anyone to riot, why should he be believed? The rioters wanted to overturn Trump’s defeat. He did too. They chose to believe his lie that the election was stolen from him. And he promulgated that lie with exactly that goal in mind. He intended to stage a coup. And anyone with a grain of common sense should be able to see and understand that.
3. The incendiary speech he gave to a large crowd shortly before the Capitol was besieged has been recorded and analyzed. He used the word “fight” 20 times. Read his speech: www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6
Read the analysis by the BBB, which is considered basically centrist, with a slight lean left (www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55640437) or the Wall Street Journal, considered slightly “right” of center (www.wsj.com/articles/one-trump-fans-descent-into-the-u-s-capitol-mob-11610311660).
Anyone who cannot understand these concepts is either mentally unfit (too stupid) or morally unfit (too corrupt) to serve in either the House or the Senate.
Trump has been impeached for the second time, and rightfully so. But the cancer is still there. Those who refuse to recognize how dangerous (and gangrenous) it is (by refusing to face the overwhelming evidence) are “guilty” by association — and like surrounding tissue, should be excised. I call for the resignation of anyone — everyone — who voted not to impeach or convict Trump. Or who want to pardon him.
I beg of you - with tears on my face and fear in my heart for our county: Give back to your constituents the Republican party that existed before it was taken over by Trump and/or the tea party. And do not think that pardoning Trump is the answer. It will only enrage even more the far left – and probably more than a few from the center left — and even the center right — resulting in even more division.
O tempora! O mores! (Google that and look at it in Wikipedia.)
Out, damned spot!
M. J. Giauque, Bountiful