INSIDE: Defending Greene, lawmaker asks: What about Alcee Hastings?
In defending Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday, a senior Republican lawmaker referred to Congressman Alcee Hastings — who serves on House committees even though he was impeached and removed as a federal judge — as a reason Greene shouldn’t be punished for comments she made before she was elected.
The reference to Hastings, who was impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate in 1989, came from U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
Hastings, a South Florida Democrat, has been elected to Congress 15 times since, typically by overwhelming margins. Many Hastings supporters believe his impeachment wasn’t justified.
Following House rules, which prohibit one member from using another member’s name, Issa didn’t mention Hastings.
But the subject of his comment was clear.
“We have not and should not, in fact, hold people responsible for actions before the people of their home state elected them,” Issa said. “In so doing, we could pick a plethora of people not to seat, or not to give committees to. On the other side of the aisle there is a gentleman who I respect, who I’ve served with through my entire time in Congress, who was impeached and removed from office by this very body, and yet has served honorably here for more than two decades, and sits at a high position on many committees.”
Issa, who is serving his 10th term, brought up Hastings as the House considered whether to strip Greene’s committee assignments. She’s become the most prominent Republican in the House, thanks to a series of bizarre comments and conspiracy theories pushed before her election. (Greene repudiated some, but not all, of her previous comments during her own
House speech on Thursday.)
Hastings said via email that Issa’s comment about him wasn’t relevant to the debate over Greene. “While I appreciate Mr. Issa’s reference in his speech. The debate on the floor was pertaining to” the rule governing House consideration of the Greene issue, Hastings said.
“GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s dangerous conspiracy theories, advocating of violence, and repeated racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments have no place in Congress! Her baseless conspiracy theories, where she even claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shootings were staged, are completely appalling. It’s clear that her behavior is dangerous and only fans the flames of hate and the lawlessness our nation witnessed during the Jan. 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol. This is not behavior befitting of a Member of Congress and she should not be given a platform to continue spreading her lies,” Hastings said.
Impeachment
In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter named Hastings as a U.S. District Court judge, making him Florida’s first Black federal judge. A few years later he was criminally charged — but was acquitted by a jury in 1983 of conspiracy to solicit a $150,000 bribe while a federal judge.
Six years later, Congress took up the issue. Concluding he lied during the criminal trial, the House impeached Hastings. He was convicted by the Senate and removed after 10 years on the bench.
Committees
Issa’s suggestion that Hastings hasn’t suffered repercussions related to committee assignments isn’t completely accurate.
Hastings is a senior member of the House Rules Committee, a critical panel through which the majority party controls the flow of business for the entire House of Representatives. And he is chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission, charged with advancing human rights and democracy building.
However, there have been residual committee-related effects from impeachment.
When Democrats took control of the House in the 2006 elections, Hastings was in line to become chairman of the Intelligence Committee, which is an important job. After Republicans attempted to use his background as a political cudgel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed over Hastings and installed someone else.
The boundaries of his district have changed over the years, but he currently represents most of the African American and Caribbean American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Hastings wasn’t on the House floor during the debate Thursday. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Hastings was one of many members of Congress using another member to vote on his behalf on the Greene issue. He voted in favor of the House taking up the measure to strip Greene of her committee assignments.