I usually send thank-you notes using the internet. However, these heroes deserve whatever we have time to spare to thank them for their dedication to truth, hard work, oratory talents and patriotism to hold 45 accountable for one of his most egregious crimes- inciting riots that resulted in death and injury. I drew a small picture of each on the respective postcard. Drawing helps me to reduce stress and hopefully entertain.
Raskin began drafting articles of impeachment against Trump the morning after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The Maryland congressman’s son Thomas had died by suicide just a week earlier, and Raskin told The Post that memories of his son are his source of strength. “I felt him in my heart and in my chest,” Raskin said. “All the way through the counting of the electoral college votes and through the nightmare of the armed attack on the Capitol.”
“That mob, at the president’s direction, erupted into the bloodiest attack on this Capitol since 1814. Some of you have said there’s no way the president could have known how violent the mob would be. That is false, because the violence — it was foreseeable. … The violence that occurred on Jan. 6, just like the attack itself, did not just appear.”
“[Trump] truly made his base believe that the only way he could lose was if the election was rigged. And senators, all of us know, and all of us understand how dangerous that is for our country. Because the most combustible thing you can do in a democracy is convince people that an election doesn’t count, that their voice and their vote don’t count, and that it’s all been stolen, especially if what you’re saying are lies. … And let’s be clear, President Trump knew that you can’t just stop counting votes, but he wanted to inflame his base.”
“The attack on the Capitol was not solely the work of extremists lurking in the shadows. And indeed, does anyone in this chamber honestly believe that but for the conduct of President pen that [is] the charge in the articles of impeachment, that the attack on the Capitol would have occurred? Does anyone believe that?
“Already [Republicans] are saying we shouldn’t have a trial, even though the precedent is clear that you can have an impeachment trial after somebody leaves office. So I’m sure that we’ll hear all kinds of arguments, but I know that the trial will be fair … the evidence is so clear in this case. We have everything, pretty much, on TV.”
“Those of you who were here that day will recall that once you left the Senate floor, you moved through a hallway to get to safety. That hallway was near where Officer Goodman had encountered a mob, and led them upstairs, and away from the Senate chamber. You know how close you came to the mob. Some of you, I understand, could hear them. But most of the public does not understand how close these rioters came to you. “As you were moving through that hallway — I paced it off — you were just 58 steps from where the mob was amassing and where police were rushing to stop them.”
“He says it right there — the president of the United States telling a public official to manufacture the exact votes needed so he can win. Senators, we must not become numb to this. Trump did this across state after state — so often, so loudly, so publicly. Public officials like you and me received death threats and calls threatening criminal penalties all because Trump wanted to remain in power.”
“In his desperation, [Trump] turned on his own vice president. He pressured Mike Pence to violate his constitutional oath and to refuse to certify the [election]. President Trump had decided that Vice President Pence, who presided over the certification, could somehow stop it. … Even after the Capitol was attacked, even after he was personally targeted, even after his family was targeted, Vice President Pence stood strong and certified the election. Vice President Pence showed us what it means to be an American, what it means to show courage. He put his country, his oath, his values and his morals above the will of one man.”
“What you experienced that day, what we experienced that day, what our country experienced that day, is the Framers’ worst nightmare come to life. Presidents can’t inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk away like nothing happened. And yet, that is the rule President Trump asks you to adopt. I urge you, we urge you, to decline his request, to vindicate the Constitution.”
