Several Democrats – including a handful of 2020 candidates – lambasted President Trump for describing the Democrat-led impeachment effort as a political “lynching,” calling the president’s words “despicable and disgusting,” and accusing him of being a “white supremacist.”
Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to slam the Democrat-led impeachment effort, calling on Republicans to “remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching.”
“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching,” Trump wrote:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) echoed the president’s sentiments, blasting the Democrat-led impeachment effort as “joke,” “scam,” and “political lynching.”
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley spoke to reporters and noted that the current impeachment process lacks “due process.”
He added, “The president’s not comparing what’s happened to him to one of the country’s darkest moments.”
The president’s description of the partisan impeachment effort as a political “lynching” drew ire from Democrats across the board, including a handful of 2020 candidates.
“Lynching is a reprehensible stain on this nation’s history, as is this President,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) wrote. “We’ll never erase the pain and trauma of lynching, and to invoke that torture to whitewash your own corruption is disgraceful”:
“The legacy of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, and suppression is alive and well in every part of this country—including in the White House where the president is a white supremacist,” Beto O’Rourke (D) assessed:
“Impeachment is not ‘lynching,’ it is part of our Constitution. Our country has a dark, shameful history with lynching, and to even think about making this comparison is abhorrent,” Joe Biden (D) wrote. “It’s despicable”:
“It’s beyond shameful to use the word ‘lynching’ to describe being held accountable for your actions, Julián Castro (D) wrote:
“Lynching is an act of terror used to uphold white supremacy,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) wrote. “Try again”:
“Lynching has a racist, dark past in our country’s history and was used to terrorize African Americans. To compare congressional oversight to lynching is disgusting and shameful,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) tweeted:
“Lynching is a horrific stain on our country’s history, and it is beyond disgraceful for Donald Trump to invoke one to avoid being held accountable for his crimes,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote.
“Nobody is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” she added:
The remark drew a reaction from more than just 2020 candidates.
“Haven’t even had coffee yet & the occupant of the WH, the bigoted man who called for the execution of the exonerated 5, is tossing the word ‘lynching’ around,” far-left “Squad” member Rep Ayanna Pressley wrote.
“Lord give me the strength to not take the bait but hold this man accountable for every single thing he says and does,” Pressley continued:
More:
Notably, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) accused Republicans of “running a lynch mob” during Bill Clinton’s impeachment process in 1998.
“I am the president’s defender in the sense that I haven’t seen anything yet that would rise, in my opinion, to the level of impeachable offense,” Nadler said at the time.
“I wish we could get this over with quickly,” he continued.
“In pushing the process, in pushing the arguments of fairness and due process the Republicans so far have been running a lynch mob,” he added.
Similarly, other notable Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), blasted Clinton’s impeachment, with Pelosi accusing Republicans of being “paralyzed with hatred” and Waters assessing that the GOP was “driven by hatred.”
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