Interesting these days how those Republicans who do NOT have their day job at stake come out STRONGLY AGAINST a criminal that IS the President of the United States….
Lamar Alexander played a crucial role in short-circuiting the first impeachment trial of President Trump when, as an influential Republican senator from Tennessee, he opposed calling witnesses and said the president’s attempts to pressure Ukraine didn’t meet the test for removal from office.
His role in the second impeachment might have been quite different had he remained in office just a few more weeks.
In his new memoir, “The Education of a Senator,” Mr. Alexander, 85, who is also a former governor, cabinet secretary and presidential candidate, writes with disgust about how the president exhorted the crowd that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and penetrated the Senate chamber in an effort to block certification of the election. Lamar Alexander
He asserts that the president undermined the Constitution and assaulted the hallowed concept of the peaceful transfer of power.
“If those actions do not constitute a ‘high crime or misdemeanor,’ I do not know what does,” Mr. Alexander wrote in the book, which is subtitled “From J.F.K. to Trump.”
But Mr. Alexander had just left office and did not have the chance to weigh in against Mr. Trump, with whom he had an off-again, on-again relationship.
Ever the careful statesman, the ex-senator said in an interview that it would be “self-righteous and disingenuous” for him to declare how he would have voted on the second impeachment when he was not on the jury.
But he does render a verdict on the conduct of his former colleagues as Mr. Trump has steamrolled over a compliant Senate in his second term. He finds them guilty of failing to assert themselves as the Constitution intended….
…
Mr. Alexander clashed with Mr. Trump on tariffs, trade and spending issues and said that he had seen some recent signs from a few Republican senators of a willingness to challenge the president on those subjects and war powers. But he called for more pushback.
“To put it charitably, senators aren’t realizing the great opportunity they have,” Mr. Alexander said in the interview. “Hold him accountable. Help him come up with a better idea than the one he had. You want the president to succeed, but your oath is not to Trump. Your oath is to the Constitution. You swore that on your first day as a senator. You should follow it.”….
image….new Memphian
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