Louisiana’s state Republican Party blasted U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) after he voted to support the contention that the Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is constitutional.
Cassidy, who serves in the Senate with colleague and fellow GOP Sen. John Kennedy, who voted against constitutionality, said his decision was based on his belief that the Democratic impeachment managers’ presentation was better than that of Trump’s attorneys.
Cassidy joined five other Republicans and all Democrats in support of the constitutionality question; 44 Republicans voted to reject the notion and end the impeachment trial before it got started.
Previously, Cassidy was one of 45 senators, all Republicans, who voted in support of a motion from Sen. Rand Paul to declare the proceedings unconstitutional. He said Tuesday after casting his vote that lawyers for Trump seemed “disorganized,” a line of reasoning critics dismissed as irrelevant to the question of constitutionality.
“It was disorganized, random. They talked about many things but they didn’t talk about the issue at hand, and so, if I’m an impartial juror, and I’m trying to make a decision based upon the facts as presented on this issue, then the House managers did a much better job,” Cassidy said.
“The issue at hand is, is it constitutional to impeach a president who has left office, and the House managers made a compelling, cogent case and the president’s team did not,” he added.
But the Louisiana GOP disagreed with his vote.
“The Republican Party of Louisiana is profoundly disappointed by Senator Bill Cassidy’s vote on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial now underway against former President, now private citizen, Donald J. Trump,” the Louisiana GOP said in a statement.
“We feel that an impeachment trial of a private citizen is not only an unconstitutional act, but also an attack on the very foundation of American democracy, which will have far reaching and unforeseen consequences for our republic,” the statement added.
The @LAGOP says it is “profoundly disappointed” by @SenBillCassidy‘s vote today in Trump’s impeachment trial #lalege #lagov #lasen pic.twitter.com/Ywo0x8axWk
— Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) February 9, 2021
“We also remind all Americans that former President Trump is innocent of the politically motivated, bogus charges now pending against him in a kangaroo court presided over by an openly hostile political opponent. How far justice has fallen in the short time that Democrats have been in control of the federal government!” the party’s statement concluded.
Conversely, the state party praised Kennedy’s stance, saying that he is “steadfast in his opposition to the fake impeachment trial” and “made the right decision.”
Legal experts have disagreed over the constitutionality question since the House returned one article of impeachment — for insurrection — against Trump last month before President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
Opponents say the language of the U.S. Constitution makes it clear that the only remedy for an impeached president is a removal from office, which has already occurred as a result of the election.
“The Democrats showed zero proof to support the Constitutionality of impeaching a private citizen or to prove that Donald Trump caused an attack that we already know was pre-planned,” constitutional expert, author, and top-rated conservative talker Mark Levin noted Tuesday.
“The plain text of the impeachment clause is clear, and no president has ever been treated this way since the inception of the Constitution,” he continued, adding that Trump lawyer “David Schoen made a legitimate and effective case against this unconstitutional process in the Senate.”
“Going forward with this impeachment trial of a former president of the United States is unconstitutional…and, as a matter of policy, it is wrong as wrong can be, for all of us as a nation,” Schoen argued earlier on Tuesday.
Trump’s impeachment-defense attorney answers critics blasting rocky first-day performance https://t.co/sR7IoE3EUy pic.twitter.com/XfW6ZRlO1w
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) February 10, 2021
Later, during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Schoen said: “Nobody thinks of using the impeachment process for anything other than removing a civil official from office.”
“We have courts,” Schoen added. “If you want to have an investigation, if you want to prosecute someone or something like that, we have the courts for that. That’s not what impeachment is for.”
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Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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