‘You did it!’: Rep. Collins blisters House Democrats

FPI / December 19, 2019

The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has taken “mob rule” to a “new level,” Republican Rep. Doug Collins said during the Democrats’ partisan impeachment spectacle on Wednesday.

The Democratic-led House voted to impeach President Donald Trump on two articles: 230-197 on abuse of power and 229-198 on obstruction of Congress. All Republicans voted against impeachment. Two Democrats voted no on abuse of power and three voted no on obstruction of Congress.

“If this is a compelling case for impeachment, I’m not sure why we’re here, right now,” said Collins. “It is not anywhere close to compelling.”

The Georgia Republican pointed to several people on the House floor, exclaiming “You did it!” several times before asking them to “prove us wrong.”

“Guess what?” he asked. “You don’t want to because deep down you know that that’s turning the entire jurisprudence of this country upside-down … Today from this floor we have heard the majority leader say this president is guilty and not the other way around. He is innocent and these come nowhere close to proving it.”

“But we also found a creative interpretation of minority rights,” said Collins. “But you know something? This majority leader also said, ‘wherever law ends tyranny begins.’ But I will say this, in this House wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule actually begin and the majority has taken that to a new level.”

The three Democrats who voted against impeaching Trump:

Jeff Van Drew: Van Drew, who has indicated he may switch parties, represents a New Jersey district that voted for Trump by nearly 5% in 2016. Van Drew lost five staffers, who resigned due to his possible party switch. Van Drew suggested earlier this week that his staffers were coerced by Democrats to quit.

Collin Peterson: The 75-year-old chair of the House Agriculture Committee was one of two Democrats to vote against opening the impeachment inquiry, and represents one of the more conservative districts in the country. Trump won Peterson’s Minnesota district by 30% in 2016, and Peterson has made clear throughout the process that he was not supportive of his party’s impeachment push. Peterson has said he is not considering a party switch at this stage of his career despite having been approached by top Republicans.

Jared Golden: The freshman congressman from Maine was the only House member to split on the two articles of impeachment, voting to charge Trump with abuse of power, but against the obstruction of Congress charge. Golden was narrowly elected last Fall to represent Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, a district the president won by 10% in 2016.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton promoted a letter signed by 750 historians calling for Trump’s impeachment. Presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author Craig Shirley responded, saying the letter expresses political passions, not facts.

On Tuesday, Clinton posted the following tweet touting the historians’ letter: “More than 750 historians "devoted to studying our nation's past," including Ron Chernow and Robert A. Caro, have signed a letter supporting the president's impeachment and removal.”

Shirley told CNSNews.com that the letter Clinton promoted was short-sighted, agenda-driven and antithetical to the principles of historical scholarship.

“Historians need to be governed by their judgement and not their passions. It is our duty to take the long view and not be caught up in the intramural skirmishes of the day,” Shirley said.

“Historians must be guided by the facts and the Democrats never presented the facts of their case against Trump. Therefore, their letter is political, not factual, meaning their liberalism guided them rather than their scholarship.”

Shirley added: “We need to let the ground cool and the smoke to clear before we begin evaluating the Trump presidency in the bright light of the facts.”

Shirley cited presidents who were viewed harshly while in office, but rose in esteem over time:

“I would simply say to my brother and sister historians that they need to remember it took 150 years for a decent biography to be written on Andrew Jackson and now he is considered by some to be a good-to-above-average president despite being censured by the Congress.

“When Harry Truman left office, his approval rating was 22 percent. Now, two generations later, he is regarded in the near-great category.

“Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan were also derided by liberal historians during their time in office, but who are now re-evaluating their opinions of both and both have gone up in the estimation of the professional history industry.

“In fact the only president who was regarded as great when he was president was George Washington.”



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