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Byrne: Obama should have been impeached under House Democrats’ current standard

Republican Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) on Wednesday morning took the floor of the United States House of Representatives to bash Democrats’ efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump.

A vote is expected Wednesday night or Thursday morning on the two articles of impeachment filed against Trump by the House Judiciary Committee last week. Before the final vote on impeachment by the House, the members must approve special rules for debate on that vote. It was during Wednesday’s debate on the rules recommended by the Democrat-controlled House Rules Committee the night previous that Byrne leaped to the podium to make his voice heard.

“Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the rule and the underlying resolution to impeach President Trump,” Byrne began.

“When the framers granted the House the power to impeach, they feared that it would be abused,” he lamented. “Today, those fears are realized.”

Byrne continued, “In record speed, this majority (House Democrats) has assembled hearsay, speculation and presumptions for the purpose of overturning the 2016 election. We’re not here today, days before Christmas, because the majority has assembled a case against President Trump. No, we’re here today because the Democrat majority believes getting impeachment done now will provide their vulnerable members time to distance themselves from their vote.”

“But I assure you, Madam Speaker, that the American people are watching,” the GOP Senate candidate emphasized.

“Many of my colleagues have, from day one, rejected the people’s choice of President Trump,” Byrne warned. “But another president will come along (eventually) more to the majority’s liking. Our actions here today will be remembered and will set the standard.”

He outlined, “The second article of impeachment seeks to remove President Trump for failure to produce certain requested witnesses and documents. But as the majority knows, every president in history has asserted executive privilege. The House has a legal avenue to challenge the president: the courts. But the majority has skipped this step, showing that this is about impeachment as fast as possible, however possible.”

“Most of my friends on the other side of the aisle had no problem backing President Obama when he stonewalled the House for years to block our quest to find out the truth in the Fast and Furious investigation,” Byrne concluded. “That is why I filed an amendment to the resolution rejected by the Rules Committee saying based upon the Democrat majority standard, they should have written articles of impeachment against President Obama and [then-Attorney General] Eric Holder. I wish my colleagues would think about the standard being set. I predict that they will very soon regret it.”

Byrne spoke more about this on WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show” on Tuesday.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn

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