The Republican Party has been disgraceful for blocking witnesses to testify during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial but has one last chance to show some backbone by at least partially standing up to the president’s improper behavior, conservative columnist Matt Lewis wrote in an op-ed in the Daily Beast on Tuesday.
GOP senators should pick up on Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s idea of passing a resolution of censure against Trump for his abuse of power and formally warn him not to do it again.
“A censure is a way for Republicans to publicly rebuke Trump’s behavior without removing the president from office,” Lewis wrote, adding that “While Trump would surely react bitterly, it’s unclear whether the Republican base (many of whom, let’s be honest, realize Trump was guilty) would completely freak out - so long as it meant keeping Trump in office.”
Lewis said that some in the GOP are making the ridiculous argument that the entire ordeal has made it less likely that Trump will attempt such bad behavior again, insisting that
“If there’s no punishment, the person gets the message that what they did was in fact just fine.”
Lewis said he does not expect the GOP to do the right thing and take his advice, but emphasized that “By choosing not to punish Trump, Republicans… aren’t just obstructing justice (in a non-legal sense), they are enabling foreign interference in our elections. The only reason not to do this is cowardice.”
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