Trump naivete

Nick Berry’s column “Turning away from Donald Trump’s madness is the best path for America” to shun President Trump without impeachment strikes me as naïve ( The Capital, Jan. 8).

It also downplays that during the attempted insurrection, there were many participantswhowere armed and intent to prevent the Electoral College from being ratified and were willing to harm and kill politicians, including Vice President Mike Pence, explicitly because of Trump’s summons of them to delay and prevent ratification.

Five people died or were killed, including a Capitol police officer, and it is a wonder that more people were not hurt. Instead of a failure, many White supremacists and other followers ofTrump see it as a success and are emboldened by the ease they were able to gain access to the U. S. government’s seat of power. They are planning for more such acts.

Impeachment by theHouse, and ideally, conviction by the Senate, is a more than appropriate to show Trump and others that there are consequences for his actions. It is what the Constitution provides to ensure that no president is above the law.

If President Trump’s encouragement of and then failure to stop a domestic insurrection is not worth the difficult but necessary process of his impeachment, impeachment is rendered meaningless. Wemust drawa bright line in the sand that this is not acceptable, forTrumpor for any presidents to come.

AMANDA REYNOLDS Annapolis