Sen. Joe Manchin said “there is no doubt” that the House should impeach President Trump following Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol Hill complex but said it might be more appropriate to pursue a “judicial path” once Trump is out of office rather than a Senate hearing.
“There is no doubt about it he should be impeached basically,” Manchin told CNN’s State of the Union. “But if we can’t — you have to be practical about what we are doing. We have two paths. We are ready to install a new government. If I was Joe Biden, I’d want to put my government together put confidence back into the American people that we can govern ourselves and be the beacon of light for the whole country and the whole world.”
If the House approves articles of impeachment this week, the earliest the Senate would be able to begin proceedings would be Jan. 20, at which point, President-elect Joe Biden would be inaugurated as the 46th president. Manchin said that holding a Senate hearing as Biden works to build a new government “doesn’t make any common sense.”
“On [Inauguration] Day would be the day we could officially start — that doesn’t make any common sense whatsoever,” Manchin said. “I hope people would look at two paths: a political path and a judicial path. I think the judicial path could be the one to give us the best results to stop this silliness within politics, this dangerous insidious type of speech that you have. People have to understand: Your words have consequences. We have seen it at the most dangerous level.”
“The rule of law is who we are,” Manchin continued. “That’s our bedrock. And that means no person is above the law. If people have died, and we know they have, and all the damage that was done, and insurrection, on our own capitol, someone has to go to be held accountable for that so it never happens again or doesn’t come within our borders, within our country. That has to stop and never can be allowed. I would think that that would be a better position to take, and that would be a better route to go versus taking a political route.”
Manchin added that judicial action should “absolutely” also be taken against members of Trump’s inner circle “who played a role” in inciting Wednesday’s violence, including Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., and Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks.
