Texas rep is first in Congress to die of virus
Second-term Republican lived for years with cancer
U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, a 67-year-old Republican from Arlington, died Sunday from COVID-19, according to a statement from his congressional office. He is the first sitting member of Congress to die from the virus.
Wright and his wife, Susan, had been admitted to Baylor Hospital in Dallas two weeks ago after testing positive.
“Today I am deeply saddened by the loss of a good man and one of my closest friends in Congress, Ron Wright,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, said Monday.
Roy said Wright had been living with cancer and felt like he was on the rebound.
“The last text I got from Ron was just over a week ago,” Roy said. “He said, ‘Still in hospital. But definitely improving.’ ”
Like the rest of America, the coronavirus pandemic has placed strains on Congress as leaders have sought to still get the public’s work done by altering long-standing rules and procedures to try to limit the spread of the virus.
Wright’s last vote, according to the House Clerk’s Office, was against impeaching President Donald Trump on Jan. 13. Wright was listed as not having voted in all of the 14 roll-call votes from that day through Feb. 5.
In late January, Wright announced he had COVID-19.
“I am experiencing minor symptoms, but overall, I feel OK and will continue working for the people of the 6th District from home this week,” Wright said at the time. “I encourage everyone to keep following CDC guidelines and want to thank all the medical professionals on the front lines who fight this virus head-on every single day.”
More than 50 members of Congress have reported testing positive for the virus. Luke Letlow, a congressman-elect from Louisiana, died late last year.
The Democrat-controlled House began offering emergency proxy voting and remote hearings in May. And in November, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed for more testing of members of Congress who are frequently traveling back and forth between their home districts and Washington, D.C.
But some members have pushed back against some of the rules, including not wearing masks. During the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, members were sheltering in place as a violent mob stormed the building. Some House Republicans refused to wear masks even as members were clustered together
in close quarters. After that event, several members quarantined and U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson, D-N.J., tested positive.
Pelosi released a statement on Monday noting that Wright’s death comes at a time when so many families have been forced to bury loved ones.
“As we grieve Congressman Wright’s passing, Members of Congress are united in sorrow and pray for the families and loved ones of the over 460,000 Americans who have been killed by the vicious coronavirus,” she said. “Each death is a tragedy that breaks our hearts and demands
strong, urgent action.”
Wright’s death also comes as Congress is once again facing a stalemate over a third round of COVID relief. President Joe Biden has rolled out a $1.9 trillion package that calls for direct checks, money for school reopenings and funds for a robust vaccine effort. But Republicans have balked at the price tag.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lauded Wright for his passion in fighting for conservative causes.
“For Ron, public service was more than a job, it was a calling,” McCarthy said. “The difference
he was able to make over the past two decades will continue to live on in every life he impacted.”
Wright has been in Congress since 2018 after serving previously as the Tarrant County tax assessor-collector. Before that, he served as a city councilman in Arlington from 2000 to 2008. The 6th Congressional District he represented includes southeastern sections of Tarrant County and reaches south into Ellis and Navarro counties.
“Congressman Wright will be remembered as a constitutional conservative,” a statement from his office said. “He was a statesman, not an ideologue. Ron and Susan dedicated their lives to fighting for individual freedom, Texas values, and above all, the lives of the unborn.”
Wright won the seat after former U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican, did not seek re-election after 34 years in Congress. Wright had served as a district director of Barton’s congressional office and was Barton’s chief of staff before he was elected as the tax assessor-collector.
Other members of Congress from Texas have battled COVID-19 recently. U.S Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, announced in early January he had tested positive for the virus, as did Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth. U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, last year was among those infected with the virus.
Texas has seen nearly 2.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, and more than 38,700 people have died in the state. While Texas lab-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations have dipped since Jan. 11, when the state reported a peak of 14,210 lab-confirmed patients, the state still reported more than 9,400 people in hospitals statewide with the virus as of Monday night.
The last member of Congress from Texas to die in office was U.S. Rep. Frank Tejeda, D-San Antonio, who died in 1997 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
State law requires Gov. Greg Abbott to set a special election to select a person to replace Wright in Congress.
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of “political theater” and accused House Democrats on the eve of the former president’s trial of exploiting the chaos and trauma of last month’s Capitol riot for their party’s gain.
Trump’s legal brief is a wideranging attack on the House case, foreshadowing the claims his lawyers intend to present on the same Senate floor that was invaded by rioters Jan. 6. The sharp-tongued tone, with accusations that Democrats are making “patently absurd” arguments and trying to “silence a political opponent,” makes clear that Trump’s lawyers are preparing to challenge the constitutionality of the trial and any suggestion that he was to blame for the insurrection.
“While never willing to allow a ‘good crisis’ to go to waste, the Democratic leadership is incapable of understanding that not everything can always be blamed on their political adversaries, no matter how very badly they may wish to exploit any moment of uncertainty on the part of the American people,” the defense lawyers say.
In their brief, they suggest that Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he disputed the election results, and they argue that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to have a peaceful protest and therefore cannot be responsible for the actions of the rioters. They also say the Senate is not entitled to try Trump now that he has left office, an argument contested by even some conservative legal scholars, and they deny that the goal of the Democrats’ case is justice.
“Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote.
Betrayal alleged
House impeachment managers filed their own document Monday, asserting that Trump had “betrayed the American people” and that there is no valid excuse or defense.
“His incitement of insurrection against the United States government — which disrupted the peaceful transfer of power — is the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president,“
the Democrats said.
The trial will begin Tuesday with a debate and a vote on whether it’s even constitutional to prosecute the former president, an argument that could resonate with Republicans keen on voting to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior. Opening arguments would begin Wednesday at noon, with up to 16 hours per side for presentations.
Under a draft agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the proceedings will break Friday evening for the Jewish Sabbath at the request of Trump’s defense team and resume Sunday. There will likely be no witnesses, and the former president has declined a request to testify.
This impeachment trial will be different because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Rather than sitting at their desks through the trial, senators may be spread out, including in the “marble room” just off the Senate floor, where proceedings will be shown on TV, and in the public galleries above the chamber, to accommodate social distancing, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Trump’s second impeachment trial is opening with a sense of urgency
— by Democrats who want to hold him accountable for the Capitol siege and Republicans who want it over as quickly as possible.
The proceedings are expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated trial that resulted in Trump’s acquittal a year ago on charges that he privately pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic rival Joe Biden, now the president. This time, Trump’s rally cry to “fight like hell” and the storming of the Capitol played out for the world to see. Trump very well could be acquitted again, and the trial could be over in half the time.
Biden will be busy with the business of the presidency and won’t spend “too much time watching,” press secretary Jen Psaki said when asked Monday.
Trump is the first president to be twice impeached and the only one to face trial after leaving the White House. The Democratic-led House approved a sole charge, “incitement of insurrection,” acting swiftly one week after the riot, the most violent attack on Congress in more than 200 years. Five people died, including a woman shot by police inside the building and a police officer who died of injuries the next day.
So far, it appears there will be few witnesses called, as the prosecutors
and defense attorneys speak directly to senators who have been sworn to deliver “impartial justice” as jurors. Most are also witnesses to the siege, having fled for safety that day as the rioters broke into the Capitol and temporarily halted the electoral count certifying Biden’s victory.
Video evidence
Instead, House managers prosecuting the case are expected to rely on videos from the siege, along with Trump’s incendiary rhetoric refusing to concede the election, to make their case. His new defense team has said it plans to counter with its own cache of videos of Democratic politicians making fiery speeches.
“We have the unusual circumstance where on the very first day of the trial, when those managers walk on the floor of the Senate, there will already be over 100 witnesses present,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Trump’s first impeachment, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Whether you need additional witnesses will be a strategic call.”
Democrats argue it’s all about holding the former president accountable for his actions, even though he’s out of office. For Republicans, the trial will test their political loyalty to Trump and his enduring grip on the GOP.
Initially repulsed by the graphic images of the siege, Republican senators including McConnell denounced the violence and pointed fingers of blame at Trump. But in recent weeks they have rallied around Trump, arguing that his comments do not make him responsible for the violence and questioning the legitimacy of trying someone no longer in office.
Senators were sworn in as jurors late last month, shortly after Biden was inaugurated, but the trial proceedings were delayed as Democrats focused on confirming the new president’s initial Cabinet picks and as Republicans sought to put as much distance as possible from the riot.
At the time, Sen. Rand Paul, RKy., forced a vote to set aside the trial as unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office, drawing 44 other Republicans to his argument.
The 45 votes in favor of Paul’s measure suggest the near impossibility of reaching a conviction in a Senate where Democrats hold 50 seats but a two-thirds vote — or 67 senators — would be needed to convict Trump. Only five Republicans joined with Democrats to reject Paul’s motion: Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.