Rand Paul decries ‘ludicrous’ impeachment drive against Trump, doubts Senate trial
Sen. Rand Paul called the Democratic drive to impeach President Donald Trump with nine days left in his term “ludicrous” and cast doubts that the U.S. Senate would even conduct a trial if the U.S. House approves formal articles this week.
In an interview Monday, the second-term Republican said an impeachment trial that wouldn’t likely start until Trump is out of office will “do nothing but divide the country further.”
“You would think from their point of view they would want to put their positive and their first step forward to be something that they’re trying to do for the country as opposed to something that’ll further divide us,” Paul said. “I think it’s a terrible idea, I think it’ll die on the vine in the sense that I don’t think there will be any trial.”
The House introduced a single article of impeachment against Trump on Monday, following last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol that many Democrats believe the president incited.
The article states that Trump “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged -- and foreseeably resulted in -- lawless action at the Capitol.”
It cites Trump’s remark saying, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Last week, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell circulated a memo among his caucus outlining the procedure for a second impeachment trial within a year. It included the possibility of a Senate trial commencing on the same day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
Biden has steered clear of supporting another impeachment effort, likely calculating that sustained attention on Trump would only distract from his own governing priorities.
Paul said the Democratic gambit was a classic example of overreach.
“It’ll get away from them trying to do anything positive for the country in just showing that they still have this bitter rancor that they can’t get out of their mouth,” he said. “Impeachment is different from being very unhappy with the mob violence and what happened at the capitol.”
Trump was impeached in December of 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of justice that stemmed from his solicitation of political assistance from the Ukrainian government in an attempt to tar Biden, who ended up being his 2020 general election opponent. A Republican-controlled U.S. Senate acquitted him of the charges in February of 2020, a month before the coronavirus pandemic besieged the country and nine months before he lost his re-election bid to Biden.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 12:08 PM.
