In a recent interview televised on MSNBC, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, went after the efforts recently undertaken by House Republicans including Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene to ostensibly expunge Trump’s two impeachments approved by the House when Democrats still held the majority in the last Congress.
Lieu exposed the hollowness and lack of an established legal foundation for what these Republican political leaders are trying to do. The first impeachment of the then-president dealt with efforts by Donald and allies of his to try pressuring authorities in Ukraine into conducting investigative work that could have been politically helpful to Trump’s attempt to win another term, while the second impeachment was launched and approved after Trump’s deceptive rhetoric directly led to the violent and deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump, Greene, and others have consistently provided support for participants in that violent assault who’ve been charged, making any claim that their side represents the defenders of law and order — or whatever — an utterly ludicrous notion.
“There is no such thing known as an expungement of an impeachment in the United States Constitution,” Lieu told host Alex Witt. “This is totally a made-up process. It’s nothing more than a glorified press release with a fake vote. And by the way, with the second impeachment, there was bipartisan support in the House and in the Senate. 57 U.S. Senators on a bipartisan basis voted to convict — the highest in U.S. history… You can’t just erase that. It was televised. Millions of people saw it.”
One of the proposals to expunge one of Trump’s impeachments was sponsored by Greene, while another comes from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who replaced Liz Cheney in House GOP leadership before the latter lost her primary and exited Congress. Republicans have consistently clamored against those in their party who’ve dared to even moderately break with Trump, essentially driving figure after figure from public office. In other words, this is effectively who they are. Greene recently promoted her expungement idea at a Trump event held as part of July 4 festivities in Pickens, South Carolina. Watch below:
