Six months ago, I couldn’t have imagined writing what I’m going to write.
Heck, two months ago. Or one month. Or even one week.
Now, though, I’m willing: I really admired the speech Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy gave last Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. House.
There, I wrote it. And I’m not kidding. Really.
I couldn’t have imagined writing or saying that even as late as last Wednesday morning as I drove my pickup east on Interstate 90 with my dog in the portable kennel and my lunch in the cooler. I had my shotgun, too, of course. I was going pheasant hunting near Hayes. And I was tuned into public radio, listening to the impeachment hearing on the House floor.
Little did I know that I was driving into the unexpected, at least in one case.
“Same old repetitious partisan yammer,” I mumbled to one speaker after the next.
It was all so predictable, so partisan, so much aimed at payback or self-defense or party defense or Trump defense, and always at the next primary for members on each side — that every-two-years thing is tough. So, they were regurgitating oft-regurgitated allegations and counter-allegations ad nauseam.
Not that the attacks on President Trump weren’t justified. Of course, they were. His already reprehensible rhetoric and behavior reached new lows during the last two months. He denied the reality of his re-election failure, attacked elections officials of his own party, tried to strong-arm one into manufacturing votes for him, and, ultimately, inspired thousands of his angry, delusional supporters to come to Washington, D.C., where some of them attacked the U.S. Capitol.
So, there was plenty of reason for condemnations. But to what end?
And the evidence? It’s all over the news
Someone on social media spoke of “presenting evidence” during the second House impeachment of Donald Trump. But, of course, no evidence was presented Wednesday. Not really. Instead, Trump's comments and actions, and inactions that were widely covered by newspapers and TV crews and radio reporters and are now commonly known facts were repeated. And repeated.
And so were allegations, sometimes months or years old, against Democrats by unreconstructed defenders of the president. And because it was, despite its ludicrous and predictable theater, an historic event, I tried to stay focused on the broadcast as Pennington and then Haakon counties whizzed by.
I tried without a great deal of luck until McCarthy spoke. Yeah, that McCarthy, the one I never really liked, especially “never” since he embraced Donald Trump and Donald Trumpism.
Such as, for example, the Trumpism (read that as “lie”) that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election, apparently through a wide-ranging, massive-voter-fraud-and thievery operation across multiple key states involving Democratic and Republican elections officials and courts all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and its three new justices appointed by, yes, Donald Trump.
McCarthy had been regurgitating that lie to one degree or another not all that many days before he rose to speak last Wednesday. And he seemed, to me, to be too smart for that. And maybe too decent, too. But based on past comments, I didn’t expect much different from him on Wednesday.
I was a little surprised that up to that point in the show, Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (yeah, that guy) seemed to be managing the Republican speakers and their time. Some of which he finally gave to McCarthy, the House minority leader.
And McCarthy didn’t take long to capture my attention. How? By telling the truth. Boy, I really hadn’t expected that.
Hey, wait, did he just speak the truth out loud?
I love the unexpected when it shows itself in the otherwise-predictable politics of today, especially when it involves telling the truth. Truth can be eloquent, regardless of how it’s phrased. Here are just some of the unexpected truths McCarthy offered, beginning with a condemnation of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol a week earlier:
- “What we saw last week was not the American way. Neither is the continued rhetoric that Joe Biden is not the legitimate president. Let’s be clear. Joe Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States in one week because he won the election.”
Wow. I almost had to pull over along Highway 14 and let my head clear. The truth! That’s not what he had been saying for the last two months. But better late than never. And a good place for it.
And McCarthy had more truth to tell:
* “Some say the riots were caused by ANTIFA. There was absolutely no evidence of that. And conservatives should be the first to say so.”
And this:
- “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
McCarthy also had suggestions and offers, based on those aforementioned truths:
- These facts require immediate action by President Trump: accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.”
Then McCarthy urged members to choose another option — censure of the president — rather than impeachment. He argued that there would be real, strong Republican support for the censure resolution, unlike the mostly partisan impeachment, which would later get votes of support from 10 of the more than 200 Republicans in the House.
It’s politically inspired, but is it right?
McCarthy argued that censure and a more unified Congress would help the nation “heal and grow stronger.” He said the new presidency of Joe Biden will “face immediate challenges that must be addressed” and would benefit from such cooperation and unity.
* “I stand ready to assist in that effort with good faith, goodwill, and an open hand.”
The McCarthy offer was not accepted by Democrats, of course. I knew while I was cruising along on Highway 14 as McCarthy made the offer that it would not be accepted. It’s payback time for the Democrats, for all that Trump has done over the last four years but especially over the last two months.
And the president’s despicable behavior and rhetoric especially lies about a stolen election that McCarthy had been repeating, surely deserve punishment. Probably deserve impeachments by the House. Probably even deserve conviction in and expulsion from office by the Senate, and a ban on ever serving in elected office again.
It would be good to know there was no chance that Donald Trump could ever again be elected president. But I doubt that will happen. I doubt the Senate will convict him because I doubt 17 Republican senators will vote for it.
It won’t be done, can’t be done before Trump leaves office. And constitutional scholars disagree on whether Trump can be banned from office by an impeachment trial in the Senate when he’s no longer president. So, is there a point, beyond politics?
And if my concerns are right, then what? Trump survives impeachment again and calls it another victory. His rabid base and the unfortunately high percentage of Republicans beyond that base who still support the president may be emboldened and energized.
Through impeachment, the Senate and House go back to being the divided bodies they were before the awful domestic terrorism that struck the heart of our government on Jan. 6, which brought a semblance of unity, and an opportunity for more.
Watching the unthinkable at the U.S. Capitol
I was aghast at the attacks on Dec. 6. I was inspired that the Secret Service and right-thinking Capitol Police and other law-enforcement officers acted heroically to protect our elected officials. And I was further inspired that they returned that night and worked into the next day to certify a free-and-fair election and the crucial democratically affirmed transfer of power.
I was also hopeful for something different from both sides.
The Democrats held the high ground on Jan. 7. A number of key Republicans who had either been silent or been speaking nonsense before the 6th, found the truth with their voices on the 7th, and since.
South Dakota’s lone member of the U.S. House, Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson, never spouted the election-fraud nonsense, to begin with. But neither did he clearly state that Biden won in a free-and-fair election.
Johnson did not sign on with 140 other House members pledging to contest the Biden win. And back in November, he was one of a couple of dozen GOP House members calling for the transition to proceed. On the House floor last week, Johnson voted to certify the election results. He also voted against impeachment, for reasons similar to McCarthy’s.
But any sign of disloyalty toward Trump can ignite dangerous reactions from some of Trump’s most frenzied supporters. Authorities are investigating a death threat against Johnson. Someone posted his home address and a picture online. I mean his family home address. And his offices have been swamped with angry calls.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah continued to be the most forceful congressional truth-teller for his party. But others stood up, too, especially after the Capitol attacks. U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking GOP member in the House, condemned Trump’s behavior as she defended her vote for impeachment:
“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in a statement, adding, “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Under attack from within the party for speaking the truth
Cheney is under siege by fervent Trump supporters for her powerful act of conscience. So much so that I might send her a contribution for her re-election campaign. The truth has value, after all, even if not to a lot of Trump supporters. That remains true, despite Jan. 6.
A Pew Research Center survey reports that 46 percent of Republicans and independents who lean toward Trump say he doesn’t have any responsibility for the Capitol attack. Equally unsettling, to me at least, was a survey result showing that 17 percent of those who voted for Trump say he has done an excellent job as president since the Nov. 3 election. Thirty-four percent say he has done a good job and 28 percent called his job performance fair.
The president really hasn’t done much of anything on the job since the election, other than sulk and fume and lie and attack others and, especially, attack the truth.
It had an impact. After the elections in November, 70 percent or more of surveyed Republicans said voter fraud determined the election. McCarthy was among them, up until last week.
He finally acknowledged the truth on the House floor on Jan. 13, making an offer that Democrats could and did refuse.
I hope they’re smarter than I am. I hope they know what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it. And I hope, with some reservations based on his past performance, that Kevin McCarthy sticks with the truth and with his offer of cooperation and unity.
This nation needs it, regardless of how the second impeachment of Donald Trump turns out.
