The speech I would give today
Lawmakers are often accused of being too scripted and inauthentic. But sometimes, events transpire that call for them to speak off the cuff. Most of the time those events are minor. But not on January 26, 2021.
Our nation’s capitol was invaded today. We’re Deliberatus a member of Congress, this is the speech I would give, presented here as written straight through.
Madam Speaker and Members,
We were given gas masks in this chamber today.
We were evacuated from this chamber today.
Turn around and you’ll see where they barricaded the back door of this chamber today, guarding it with guns drawn as armed insurrectionists swarmed the Capitol.
A woman lost her life in this building today.
We came here on January 6 to certify the results of our most recent election as the constitution we swore an oath to uphold requires us to do. And we listened, patiently, but not without great frustration, for the past two months as voices inside this chamber and the Senate chamber insisted without a shred of credible proof that the results we came to certify today aren’t valid. And, no, I’m sorry to my fellow Republican colleague but a vote from 1993 and cherry picked quotes from random studies released 15 years ago are not credible proof of wrongdoing two months ago.
We listened, we disagreed. And we heard. We heard our president and the people who feed the altered reality he operates in issue the call to arms for this place on this day.
But even those of us who have never been under his spell I don’t think could have imagined what this day brought.
For there’s now the mark of a bullet on the outside of the door to our House Chamber today.
That bullet traveled the end of a path paved by the actions, the denial and the rhetoric of the last four plus years that Donald Trump rose to power in our country. There is a straight and unbroken chain of events from the moment this man entered the political arena to the armed insurrection that was repelled here today, and everyone who supported him along the way bears some modicum of responsibility for that chain being unbroken, though some certainly welded more links than others.
With that being self-evident, and with our oath to protect this country from enemies foreign and domestic fresh in our minds, I am announcing tonight my intent to bring articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump for his role in leading and inciting the enemies domestic who tried to prevent us, a duly elected legislature, from certifying the lawfully cast and apportioned electoral votes of the 50 states.
Had his attempted violent insurrection succeeded, the American people would have been governed not by the rule of law established in the constitution all elected officials swear an oath to uphold but by the man with the loudest voice commanding the most unruly mob.
There can be no higher crime against our constitution than holding power by any force other than the consent of the governed. That’s what Donald Trump attempted today and he is therefore deserving of impeachment and conviction as outlined by that same constitution.
So I ask you, Madam Speaker and members, if today hasn’t convinced you,
What will?