Kelly decries riot but redoubles his objections to vote

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, was on the House floor Wednesday when armed rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, prompting a chaotic adjournment of Congress as it certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Kelly — after leaving south through underground tunnels and hiding out in a conference room in the Longworth House Office Building — returned to the floor hours later to cast a vote, along with every Western Pennsylvania Republican, to object to Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College ballots cast for Mr. Biden.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Kelly condemned the violence that shook the nation’s capital last week and called for the rioters, who are loyal to President Donald Trump, to be arrested.

But he defended his challenges to the election as justified, despite Mr. Trump’s unfounded allegations that he won Pennsylvania — many of them aired to protesters shortly before they breached the Capitol — and the mounting pressure to remove him from office through the 25th Amendment or a

second impeachment.

“I do not think that anybody has the right to do what took place on Wednesday,” Mr. Kelly said. “Those that did it, the perpetrators, need to be arrested, they need to be held accountable for what they’ve done, and there needs to be an atonement for that.”

He expressed empathy, however, with the people who were objecting to the election results.

“On Nov. 3, the greatest loss was the loss of confidence, faith and trust the American people have in our current electoral system,” Mr. Kelly said. “They don’t believe, in great numbers — millions upon millions of Americans feel that that election wasn’t right. And I think we need to do a really deep dive into what took place and to fix immediately where we think the greatest egregious activities took place.”

“It causes great concern among fair-minded people,” Mr. Kelly added.

On the question of whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office through the 25th Amendment, Mr. Kelly dismissed it as a “civics lesson for most of the country” because the amendment, he argued, clearly cannot be invoked in this situation. The amendment, when invoked throughout history, has been a brief measure related to a health incapacity, like when a president is put under anesthesia for surgery.

“He’s not incapable of functioning,” Mr. Kelly said, adding he would plan to vote against any articles of impeachment.

Mr. Kelly’s comments come as Democrats and a growing number of Republicans are calling for a reckoning after last week’s events. As messy as it would be to pursue a second impeachment in two years, Democratic leaders argue, it is paramount to come down forcefully on Mr. Trump and his staunchest supporters, who are inciting violence by spreading disinformation about the 2020 election.

Mr. Kelly, who is leading a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s election rules as unconstitutional, maintained that he believes the courts will find the Republican-led Legislature in Harrisburg violated the state constitution when they allowed no-excuse mail-in balloting in 2019.

As other Republican lawmakers have done, he sought to compare the U.S. Capitol storming with the protests over police brutality and racism that erupted in cities across the country after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

He pointed to comments made in July by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif., that “people will do what they do” in response to a question about the toppling of a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore.

“Speaker Pelosi was very clear during last summer,” Mr. Kelly said, “when she was being told about the riots that were taking place — excuse me, peaceful protests that were taking place — that ‘people will do what people will do.’

“I guess in that case, people could be confused, then, on what is your stance then on these activities that take place?” he continued. “Which of those are egregious, and which of those are, ‘people will do what people will do?’ ”

Many reject that comparison and hold Mr. Trump — along with Republican lawmakers in Congress who, like Mr. Kelly, raised objections — directly accountable for the violence.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Sunday called for Mr. Trump to “resign and go away as soon as possible” and that resignation was the “best path forward.”

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., released a statement Monday that said a failure to remove Mr. Trump from office would be “a profound injustice and give a green light to future authoritarians.”

“President Trump should be impeached and removed from office because he betrayed his oath to the Constitution and incited a mob to violence,” he wrote. “There should also be accountability for those members of Congress who led the effort to overthrow a democratic election.”

Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and Conor Lamb, DMt. Lebanon, both enthusiastically support moving quickly to impeach.

Other GOP members from Western Pennsylvania have refused interviews about their stances on Congress’ response to the Capitol riots.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, retweeted a statement from House Republican leadership last week that criticized Democrats’ efforts to impeach Mr. Trump.

On Monday, his spokesman said he was “unavailable” to answer questions about his thoughts on the Capitol storming and what Congress should do in response.