I’m doing thought experiments.
Please join with me, and turn these three questions over in your mind.
First: Suppose that Barack Obama had given an incendiary speech at the White House, prompting a mob to march to Congress and storm the Capitol, resulting in several deaths.
What would Republicans have said?
Second: Suppose that a group of foreign terrorists had managed to breach the Capitol Building, vandalize the premises, and send members of Congress scrambling for safety. Several people died in the attack.
What would happen after the attack was repelled?
Am I wrong to think that members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, would join arms, march to the steps of the Capitol Building, together sing “America the Beautiful” (bringing a tear to the eye of all who watched), and then return to session to pass bipartisan legislation appropriately responding to the violence?
Finally (and admittedly the hardest thought experiment of all): Suppose that, in the next two weeks, the House of Representatives unanimously passed articles of impeachment, and the Senate unanimously convicted President Donald Trump, removing him from office and barring him from holding office again.
Why would that be divisive?
That’s unifying. That’s how Congress appropriately responds when the president urges a mob to attack it.
(If you don’t believe that Trump exactly incited the mob to storm the Capitol, please do a fourth thought experiment: Imagine that he had not given his speech. Would the attack have occurred?)
Unanimous impeachment and conviction would punish Trump for his actions. No future president would ever dare to incite a mob to storm the Capitol. And people around the world — including in the United States — would see that America protects peaceful protest, but the country unites and comes down with a vengeance on those who engage in violence.
Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.