South Dakota Sen. John Thune on Thursday warned Republican allies of former President Donald Trump against engaging in “cancel culture,” as several GOP lawmakers face censures for their votes in favor of convicting Trump during his recent impeachment trial.
“There was a strong case made,” Thune said in reference to the impeachment case made by the Democratic House impeachment managers. “People could come to different conclusions. If we’re going to criticize the media and the Left for cancel culture, we can’t be doing that ourselves.”
Thune is the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, serving as minority whip.
Trump was impeached for a second time last month on a charge of incitement of insurrection in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and he was acquitted by the Senate last week.
Seven GOP senators joined with Democrats and independents in voting to convict him: North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey.
“President Trump attempted to corrupt the election by pressuring the Secretary of State of Georgia to falsify the election results in his state. President Trump incited the insurrection against Congress by using the power of his office to summon his supporters to Washington on January 6th and urging them to march on the Capitol during the counting of electoral votes,” Romney said in a statement explaining his vote.
Sasse said, “Here’s the sad reality: If we were talking about a Democratic president, most Republicans and most Democrats would simply swap sides. Tribalism is a hell of a drug, but our oath to the Constitution means we’re constrained to the facts.”
The North Carolina Republican Party on Tuesday unanimously voted to censure Burr, who slammed Trump for promoting “unfounded conspiracy theories to cast doubt” on the results of the 2020 presidential election and for urging “his supporters to go to the Capitol” on Jan. 6 to wreak havoc. On the same day, Utah Republicans circulated a petition to censure Romney after his failure to “represent the average conservative Utah Republican voter.”
Censures act as rebukes but carry no penalties.
“Utah is a red state. We elected Mitt Romney to be a part of the red team,” GOP activist Janalee Tobias said. “Trump is the quarterback of the red team. Romney has decided to play for the blue team, and he should resign.”
Collins has also faced censure threats from the Maine Republican Party.
Ten Republicans in the House voted to impeach Trump in mid-January, including Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice. Many of them have also either faced censure threats or been rebuked by their hometown GOP authorities.
