Lawmakers condemn siege, want Trump gone

KINGSTON, N.Y. » A bipartisan group of 15 Ulster County legislators has signed a letter to the county’s congressional delegation saying President Donald Trump should resign and those involved in the deadly attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“The chaos, violence and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol ... incited by the call of the outgoing president, was an act of treason and the first breach of the home of our democracy since 1814, when the British army set it on fire,” the Jan. 12 letter stated.

“The president should resign and let the vice president fill his duties until the next president is sworn in,” the letter continued, warning that although there is only a short time left in Trump’s term, “many fear what else may come.”

The letter was sent to U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, and New York state’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand.

“We ask you, our representatives in Congress, to do everything in your power to ensure that all of the individuals who incited and perpetrated the deadly insurrection on the People’s House are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the letter concluded.

Penned by Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, the letter also was signed by the Legislature’s 12-member Democratic caucus along with Dean Fabiano of Saugerties and Heidi Haynes of Stone Ridge, both members of the GOP caucus, and John Parete, a Democrat

from Boiceville who tends to caucus with the Legislature’s Republicans.

The Legislature has 23 members.

Donaldson said that following the Jan. 6 attack, which left five people dead and forced Congress to halt for a time the process of certifying the Electoral College vote, said he was contacted by several county lawmakers suggesting the Legislature weigh in on the attack.

“I felt we had to make a statement as a county,” Donaldson said. “I think that was a statement that had to be made.”