Guilty: Open Letters to My Senators
Here is the message that I sent to both of my senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, who represent North Carolina:
Senator,
I write to urge you to vote to convict Donald J. Trump in the impeachment trial.
I recognize that you voted against proceeding because of a motion to declare the process unconstitutional for a former office holder. Yet, both houses of Congress settled the issue of constitutionality by majority vote. Since we cannot pick and choose the laws we obey, you are now legally bound to render an impartial judgment on the charges brought forth.
President Trump spent months goading his most extreme supporters to reject any election result other than his victory. The fact of his loss has been supported by the votes, countless court cases, and the very body of which you are a member. The issue was legally settled by majority votes of the people and all the officials who verified those facts.
Yet Mr. Trump attacked the process, the votes, and the outcome for months before, on election day itself, and for many weeks after. His inflammatory rhetoric reached a peak on January 6 as he called for his supporters to “fight”, “fight like hell”, and “we will stop the steal” at the Capitol itself. Primed with months of fiery rhetoric by the President, it is no wonder that thousands surrounded Capitol Hill and hundreds violently tried to stop the certification of the election. People died and many, many were injured in the resulting melee.
This was more than an attack on a building. More than an attack on an election. This was an attack aimed by an opponent of democracy on the very citadel of representative government in the United States.
The weight of the evidence compels you to vote to convict Donald Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors and then bar him from public office in the future.
