Baker faces unrest in MassGOP
A pro-Trump faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party is calling for a censure of Gov. Charlie Baker for backing a second impeachment of the former president — a historic prosecution that took another step Monday night.
In the Capitol, U. S. House Democrats walked a charge of “incitement of insurrection” against former President Donald Trump over to the U.S. Senate just after 7 p.m.
The impeachment trial is set to start the week of Feb. 8.
But Republican support for a historic second impeachment trial is slipping fast.
“I think the trial is stupid. I think it’s counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and it’s like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire,” said Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
In Massachusetts, the unrest over the impeachment could spill out at upcoming party meetings, but for now some want Baker called out for siding with Democrats who want Trump prevented from running in 2024.
“We need to unite our Republican Party and a major reason we’re divided is Charlie Baker,” said Adam Lange, a Cape Cod Republican backing Trump and pushing the censure of the governor.
“The message we’re sending is we are united as Republicans behind Donald Trump,” Lange added.
Both Lange and others pushing against Baker say the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol — that left five dead from violence or medical conditions — was an unexpected outlier. “I don’t understand what happened,” said Lange, who said the buses he helped send to D.C. that day didn’t have a single “angry” passenger.
Baker, however, has said he supports a second impeachment after former Vice President Mike Pence did not invoke the 25th Amendment in the wake of the siege on the nation’s Capitol.
“I said at the time that I believe that Vice President Pence should be empowered to manage the transition to a new administration, and I continue to believe that,” Baker said almost two weeks ago.
He added: “I also said that there were a number of means and mechanisms that were available to deal with that at that point in time. Since then, several have been taken off the table.”
Geoff Diehl, a onetime Trump campaign co-chair in the Bay State and Senate candidate, said Baker should “retract his stance” on the second impeachment.