Former President Donald Trump's legacy was "destroyed" during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 and because of his refusal to acknowledge losing to Joe Biden in December, when the Electoral College confirmed his victory, freshman GOP Rep. Peter Meijer believes.
"I frankly think that, despite all of the tweets and tension, that is an administration that would have aged well once some things were moved past," the Michigan Republican told CBS News' Major Garrett for this week's episode of "The Takeout" podcast. "I think that a storming of the Capitol by [Trump's] supporters — that erased, that destroyed all the positive components of that legacy."
He added that Trump would have "secured himself an interesting but positive place in the history books" if he had acknowledged losing to Biden.
Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump's impeachment on charges of inciting the riot at the Capitol, also told Garrett that he would have voted to impeach the former president for inaction during the violence if House Democrats had added that charge to the impeachment.
"The number two, three, and four in the line of succession" for the presidency were at the Capitol, Meijer said, but Trump "stood by and watched. We're frankly incredibly lucky that day wasn't worse than it was."
He said he also thinks that there may be a point when the country can move on, but unity can't be achieved unless accountability comes for the Capitol violence.
"You can't do that if you don't address the wound," he said. "If you just paper it over, it's only going to get worse and worse."
The lawmaker also said he thinks the Republican Party will have "challenges" while still seeing Trump as its leader, as would "any entity that orients itself around a personality," and it will damage the party to keep claiming the November election was stolen from the former president."
"To me it's so patently, obviously, idiotic political malpractice that I am just at a pure and utter loss at how anyone thinks this is a viable long-term strategy to regain the majority or regain the trust of the public that the Republican Party can be a governing entity," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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