The grandson of John F. Kennedy took aim at Vice President Mike Pence after Pence cited the former president’s book Profile in Courage to criticize impeachment.
Jack Schlossberg, 27, called Pence’s Thursday opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal “a total perversion of JFK’s legacy and the meaning of courage.”
“@realDonaldTrump was impeached because he did the exact opposite — he put his own interests ahead of our country’s national security and, in the process, broke federal law,” he tweeted Saturday. “@VP Pence and Congressional Republicans have also failed the test of courage. Rather than risk their career or endure personal reprisal, they excuse the President’s and others’ admitted wrongdoing and disgraceful behavior.”
.@VP draws upon JFK’s book PROFILES IN COURAGE and the example of Edmund G. Ross, a Republican Senator who broke with his party to oppose the impeachment of President Johnson in 1865.
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 18, 2020
.@realDonaldTrump was impeached because he did the exact opposite — he put his own interests ahead of our country’s national security and, in the process, broke federal law.
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 18, 2020
I would argue instead that today, as in 1865, political courage might require a Republican Senator to risk his or her own political future by breaking lockstep from the President and agree to hear from witnesses, review the evidence, and put the national interest above their own.
— Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 18, 2020
In his piece, Pence held up then-Sen. Edmund G. Ross, who voted against his party to acquit President Andrew Johnson following his impeachment in the late 1800s. The vice president noted that Kennedy called Ross’s move “the most heroic act in American history” in his 1956 book.
“That deed holds important lessons for our own time. Ross won Kennedy’s esteem by defying his own party’s effort to oust a sitting president,” Pence wrote.
The comments come as the Senate plans to start an impeachment trial of President Trump on Tuesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the impeachment managers deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate on Wednesday following an attempt by Democrats to withhold the articles until Republicans agreed to call witnesses in the trial.
