Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that the House Democrats conducting the impeachment of former President Donald Trump were not able to prove that he incited the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“They admitted that President Trump was not impeached for his words. This is sort of extraordinary because I’m not sure how you incite someone to insurrection or to this violence they say he’s alone responsible for if it’s not through his words,” Paul said in the interview.
“They finish up by saying, ‘Well, it’s not through his words, it’s because he advocated that the election was stolen,’” he added. “Well, so has Nancy Pelosi ... So has Hillary Clinton in 2016. So has Jamie Raskin, the lead House impeachment manager [who] went to the floor in 2017 and said, ‘Trump stole the election and I am objecting to ceding the certified electors from Florida.’”
The impeachment managers, with Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-Md.) at the head, concluded the case on Thursday after two days of presentations, showing new footage and audio of the incident and assertions from rioters saying that they stormed the Capitol at Trump’s request.
Paul said he condemns the violence perpetrated at the Capitol but believes that the standards should be applied equally for both sides.
“So really, I think they’ve given up their case, but they showed endless hours of the terrible violence and mayhem and those people should be punished and on both sides of the aisle, we agree to that,” Paul continued. “But they never made their case that the president incited them through any kind of unusual language that Democrats, frankly, haven’t done much worse.”
“The one line from the president’s speech that wasn’t in the Democrats’ video is the line that’s most important, and that’s where the president said, ‘Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,’” Jordan said.
