Memorable & Quotable This WeekNot Mincing Words on the Trump Insurrection; and Dealing with China
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), the Senate minority leader, voted to acquit Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial because, he argued, the Senate had no jurisdiction to sit in judgement of a former official who is now a private citizen. But McConnell stressed that Trump was “morally and practically” responsible for the insurrection, and that Trump’s conduct between 3 November and 6 January was nothing short of a “Disgraceful dereliction of duty.” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California), the House minority leader, called Trump on 6 January – while rioters were breaking into his office — to urge Trump to call off his violent supporters. Trump refused, telling McCarthy that the rioters were more concerned with the November election than McCarthy was. To which McCarthy bluntly responded: “Who the f—k do you think you are talking to?” He then hung up on Trump. And the Atlantic Council found a pithy phrase to announce its new series of in-depth studies of U.S.-China relations: “He Said, Xi Said.”
1. “Disgraceful dereliction of duty”
Sen. Mitch McConnel (R-Kentucky), the Senate minority leader, on Donald Trump’s responsibility for the 6 January 2021 insurrection
Setting
McConnell voted to acquit Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial because, he argued, the Senate had no jurisdiction to sit in judgement of a former official who is now a private citizen. But McConnell stressed that the House Impeachment Managers proved their case that Trump committed an impeachable offense by inciting his followers to assault the Capitol, and then by refusing to do anything to call off his violent supporters.
Here are a few paragraphs from McConnell’s memorable speech to the Senate on Sunday:
Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president.
They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth – because he was angry he’d lost an election.
Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty.
….
There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.
The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.
And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.
The issue is not only the president’s intemperate language on January 6th.
It is not just his endorsement of remarks in which an associate urged ‘trial by combat’.
It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-president.
…..
Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors that unhinged listeners might take literally.
This was different.
This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.