Nashville, TN (TN Tribune)–Elected officials are supposed to be public servants, people who sought their office to help others, rather than simply obtain personal power. For four years America has had in the White House someone who couldn’t care less about most people in this country, especially those who are poor, aren’t in the upper 1% of the population, or aren’t white and male.
His focus on personal power and indulgence led him to feel he was entitled to stay in office no matter whether the voters wanted him or not. He refused to accept the fact 81 million people voted against him and repeatedly insisted the election had been stolen from him, and that Biden’s victory wasn’t legitimate.
His words incited an angry mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an ugly attempt at forcing Congress to do something they couldn’t do constitutionally, reverse the results of an overwhelmingly fair election and re-institute him in power. He is rightly being impeached a second time for those actions, and hopefully will eventually be prevented from ever again seeking elective office. But he wasn’t alone in that shameful effort.
A pair of elected legislators, Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, also participated in inciting this insurrection. Hawley actually gave the assembled mob a salute on his way into the Capitol, while he and Cruz repeatedly insisted (without any proof) that there had been widespread election fraud, and that Trump had been wrongly denied a second term.
The mob’s shameful actions resulted in the deaths of five people. It could have been much worse. These two men are every bit as guilty as Trump of inciting insurrection and trying to overrule the will of over eighty million people. Those are hardly the actions of legislators dedicated to serving the nation and enforcing the rule of law.
House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi rightly wants any and all legislators involved in supporting or encouraging those disgraceful actions on Jan. 6 expelled from Congress. There are at least six of Cruz’s former aides who’ve expressed public disgust about his actions. An article in New York Magazine’s Intelligencer details their open distaste at the man who is now their former boss. They all resigned in protest over his behavior.
At least one told the magazine “Most of Cruzworld is pretty disgusted.” Another said: “Everyone is upset with the direction things have gone, and the longer they’ve been with the senator, the more distaste they are expressing.” The rhetoric and actions of both Cruz and Hawley have prompted several Democratic lawmakers to call for them to be removed from the Senate. It also resulted in a senior Cruz aide, Lauren Blair Bianchi, resigning. The senator’s communications director quit because her visions no longer aligned with his, Punchbowl News reported.
Neither of these two men belongs in any leadership position or elective office. They have betrayed their oaths of office and their constituencies, as well as disgraced the title of Senator. They are as unfit as Donald Trump to ever again be entrusted with any responsible position of authority within the American government.