Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Florida’s representatives in the House voted along party lines, with Democrats for and Republicans against.
As the House debated impeaching President Donald Trump for inciting the deadly riot a week ago at the Capitol, the Florida delegation showed deep division, completely along party lines, agreeing about nothing concerning the riot and Trump’s culpability.
Florida Democrats described him Wednesday as a traitor to American ideals who is such a threat to democracy he must immediately be removed from office. Republicans, unwilling to cross Trump — and their constituents who voted for him — insisted the president is the victim and that Democrats are persecuting him.
The contrast couldn’t have been more clear in the debate that culminated in the 232-197 House vote for impeachment. The Florida delegation vote was 11 for impeachment and 15 opposed, with one Central Florida representative not voting.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said during the debate that Trump must be impeached for “seditious acts against America.”
“To overturn the 2020 presidential election, Trump incited a violent assault on Congress, a treasonous betrayal of our nation. This criminal incitement left us with five dead, including a police officer, a desecrated Capitol, and a second constitutional crisis. His acts so show contempt for the rule of law, the Constitution and the foundation of any democracy, a peaceful transition of power,” the Broward/ Miami-Dade County Democrat said. “President Trump is a clear and present danger to American lives and democracy and he leaves us no choice but to immediately remove him from office.”
U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, said Trump was the victim.
“There was no language in the president’s speech that incited or provoked violence,” Steube said about the presidential speech at a pre-riot rally in which Trump urged his supporters to head to the Capitol as part of a plan to stop the counting of electoral votes showing President-elect Joe Biden as the election winner.
“There was no crime committed.” He described the allegations as a “fraud being perpetrated against the American people by the radical left.”
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Republican who represents northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, used his brief allocation of speaking time for a theatrical flourish aimed at making people think there’s no reason to believe Trump did anything wrong, and didn’t incite the insurrection.
He said he was posing “a very simple question: On January 6th, thousands broke the law by taking siege of our Capitol here with us here inside. Has any one of those individuals who brought violence on this Capitol been brought here to answer whether they did that because of our president?”
His comment lasted 22 seconds, followed by 30 seconds of silence, which seemed like a long time. There is, in fact, extensive evidence that Trump incited the rioters — including his
own words — but Mast’s comment was designed purely for dramatic effect because there isn’t a way for any member of the House to ask and have questions answered during the minute or so each gets for debate on the House floor. Many perpetrators of the rampage have been arrested, and are going through the judicial system, which isn’t part of congressional proceedings.
Democrats dismissed Republican arguments as gaslighting, a technique that abusers use to twist what’s happened and distort reality.
South Florida Democrats have been clear for days: Trump is too dangerous to leave in office.
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami-Dade Democrat who represents part of South Broward, was among the first members of Congress to call for impeachment, within hours of the rampage aimed at stopping the counting of electoral votes that formally made Joe Biden the next president. “If we allow the president’s seditious acts to go unpunished, what we witnessed at the Capitol on January 6 will happen again!” she wrote Tuesday night on Twitter.
All other South Florida Democrats — Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel and Alcee Hastings — also called for impeachment.
Most Florida Republicans supported Trump’s push for Congress to reject electoral votes from several states Biden won. That was the business disrupted by the riot. But unlike the Democrats, they generally didn’t spell out how they planned to vote on impeachment until Tuesday or Wednesday as they waited to assess the political landscape.
Late Tuesday, the House voted to ask Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the process outlined in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump, something Pence said he won’t do. Except for U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Clermont, who did not vote, all Florida Democrats supported the resolution and all Republicans opposed it.
In a statement Tuesday night, Mast condemned the attack on the Capitol — but offered no criticism of the president’s role, including his encouraging his followers to descend on the Capitol during a pre-riot rally organized by the White House.
Mast said that he didn’t think Trump’s conduct rose to the constitutional standard of “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” explaining that “While I believe allowing the violence-inciting comments by Rudy Giuliani to go unchecked demonstrated a serious lack of leadership, I do not believe this conduct rises to the standard necessary for invoking the 25th Amendment or impeachment.”
Mast said it’s the actions by Congress “threaten to further divide and inflame our nation.” He didn’t say if Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the election divided the nation. Mast voted last week not to accept the electoral college votes from two states that voted for Joe Biden.
Trump’s most outspoken Florida supporter, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Panhandle Republican, said Democrats are driven by hatred for Trump. “Impeachment is an itch that doesn’t go away with just one scratch,” he said.
In one of his typical, fiery speeches praising his leader, Gaetz referred to what he called the “Biden crime family” and claimed Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 elections. He offered no evidence for either claim.
He also alleged that the 2020 election was riddled with voting irregularities. He offered no evidence for that claim, and courts in multiple states along with election officials from both parties in multiple states and said there is no evidence of systematic voter fraud.
He suggested there is some equivalence between the rioters who went on a rampage through the Capitol a week ago seeking to stop the counting of electoral votes and a dramatic gesture a year ago by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He offered no criticism of Trump inciting rioters at his pre-rampage rally — but asserted that Pelosi incited anger and resentment by ripping up her copy of Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech.
Pointing to civil unrest last year, most of which were peaceful protests of systemic racism after the police killing of George Floyd, he asserted the political left is responsible for “far more” political violence than the right. There wasn’t a consistent side perpetrating violence in 2020 protests; some emanated from the left and some from the right.
Speaking against impeachment, U.S. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said the people who don’t like
Trump have “harassed, harangued and otherwise denigrated the president since the second he became the nominee” and that those who are unhappy they lost the elections — he describe them as people who “feel they have been disenfranchised” — need time to heal.
“While his sins may be different than yours or mine, they are clearly not treasonous,” Posey said.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, said Trump incited insurrection.
“History will forever mark the day a sitting United States President incited an armed mob to attack the U.S. Congress ceremonially certifying the will of the American people in a free and fair presidential election,” Crist said in a statement. “President Trump, through action and deed, has proven to be unfit, unable, and unwilling to faithfully discharge his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. He is a clear and present threat to our nation and must be impeached and convicted by the Senate.”
Culpability
During an interview Wednesday on CNN, Rep. Val Demings said the insurrectionists had some inside assistance — and didn’t rule out the possibility that they were helped by some members of Congress.
Demings, a former Orlando police chief, said the attack was so well organized and coordinated, and the attackers showed so much knowledge about how to find their way through the building that “I do believe there was some inside assistance.”
“If any members of Congress participated, helped to organize, orchestrate the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and quite frankly the attack on us, and the American people last Wednesday, they need to be held accountable,” Demings said.