The Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish censured Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on Tuesday for voting to continue the U.S. Senate’s second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
“The Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish hereby censures Senator Bill Cassidy and holds him out as an object of shame,” the censure resolution reads.
“We condemn Senator Cassidy’s actions in the strongest manner. He does not represent the people of this state or the Republican Party. He represents himself and has joined with some of the most dishonest and disreputable forces in our country to be part of this despicable sham.”
Cassidy was one of six Republican senators to vote with Democrats on whether a former president could be tried after leaving the White House. In addition to the Louisiana Republican, Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Ben Sasse (R-NE) voted in favor of the move.
Cassidy addressed his vote while speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, saying the House Democrat impeachment managers made a “compelling, cogent case” in arguing that it is constitutional to impeach Trump post-presidency.
“The issues at hand is, is it constitutional to impeach a president who has left office. The House Managers made a compelling, cogent case and the president’s team did not,” said Cassidy.
Asked if he was opened to convicting Trump, the lawmaker replied: “I’ve always said I’m approaching this as an impartial juror.”
House impeachment managers opened their final day of presentation on Thursday by showing more video evidence from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, arguing that Trump should be held to account for inciting domestic violence.
Rep. Dianna DeGette, D-Colo., opened by saying that multiple video snippets and excerpts from court filings show that many Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol that day said they’d been invited by Trump and were acting on his orders.
She displayed one tweet from a New York man that read, “Trump just needs to fire the bat signal … then the pain comes.”
DeGette also played video footage of Trump’s “Save America” rally before the attack, at which he told supporters they must “fight like hell” — followed immediately by the crowd chanting “fight for Trump.”
Other video footage showed supporters demanding to “storm” and “invade” the Capitol and telling police there they were “invited by the president.”
The UPI contributed to this report.
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