Two weeks ago, I wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House expressing my belief that President Trump must be impeached. I am now writing to you, Sen. Mitch McConnell, to let you know why I, a United States Army veteran, believe that Trump must be convicted and barred from ever holding office again.
Just like you, sir, I took an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic, and that oath is a never-ending commitment to veterans. Trump has clearly violated the Constitution on several occasions, and his latest violation is inciting violence on Jan. 6, 2021, during the Electoral College certification of then- President-elect Joe Biden.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment clearly states the prohibition of incitement and sedition, therefore any politician who commits this act should be held accountable. Failure to follow through with accountability is a violation of the Constitution itself. People have died; two police officers, a veteran and two civilians. People who have been arrested said they were following orders from Trump, and in their minds, they are right: Trump encouraged them to fight. Those were his own words. He didn’t say have your voice heard; he used the word fight. Even in the First Amendment, threats of violence fall outside the realm of free speech.
I demand that you, Sen. McConnell, vote to convict Trump. I completely understand that many of your voters and colleagues will be upset by this decision, but doing the right thing isn’t always the popular thing. You are aware that Trump is responsible, and it’s time to do right by our country and hold him accountable.
I also believe if you want to save the Republican Party, then Republicans have to support conviction. For every inch given to Trump, a future authoritarian will take a mile. Imagine a person more corrupt and smarter than Trump. That person can use what happened in the Capitol as a means to carry out an insurrection, a terror attack or more constitutional violations. Impeaching and removing Trump is not silencing voters, it’s showing that no one is above the law. Like you, I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not the United States president. If the people arrested for their participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection truly believed they were acting as patriots when they followed the president’s orders, then Trump should be held to the same standard. Only conviction will bring this terrorism to an end and put the United States on a path to real unity.