Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich wrote an opinion piece from prison, arguing today’s House Democrats would have impeached President Abraham Lincoln.
Blagojevich, 63, the Democratic governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges stemming from an attempt to “sell” the Senate seat of former President Barack Obama. He is now seeking a commutation of his 14-year prison sentence from President Trump.
Writing in Newsmax on Wednesday, Blagojevich offered a number of examples that he contends would have ended with Lincoln’s impeachment, including freeing slaves across the country.
“Lincoln didn’t ask Congress for permission when he declared an end to nearly 250 years of slavery and offered freedom to millions of slaves in the American South. He neither consulted Congress nor sought its consent before he acted,” Blagojevich said. “In fact, at the time Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the Democrats of that day opposed it.”
Blagojevich also argued that Lincoln’s offer to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to lead the Union’s northern armies would be viewed as “Confederate collusion.”
“Can’t you see how a Speaker Pelosi and many of today’s House Democrats would call for the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate Lincoln for ‘Confederate Collusion’ and bring impeachment charges for abuse of power for offering the top military command to a guy who would go on to become the top military commander of the other side?” he asked.
Additionally, the former governor asserted that Democrats would have impeached Lincoln for suspending the writ of habeas corpus in the United States during the Civil War. Further, he said Democrats would have contended that “the routine horse trading” used to secure Lincoln’s spot on the ticket at the 1860 Republican national convention would have been seen as bribery.
He used the example of Lincoln’s aides offering then-Pennsylvania Sen. Simon Cameron a cabinet position to secure support from the state’s delegates.
“Undoubtedly, today’s House Democrats would bring impeachment charges against Lincoln labeling that routine political log rolling an illegal quid pro quo,” Blagojevich wrote.
“It is hard to imagine how history would have been changed had Lincoln been impeached. Thankfully, that never happened,” he said. “But to think that it could have happened is a reminder of how fragile our Republic is and how vulnerable our freedoms are.”
“No president is safe if a majority of hyperpartisan House members from the opposition party are willing to abuse the Constitution and vote to impeach,” Blagojevich added.
A pardon or commutation for Blagojevich has little support in his home state, where Illinois’s Republican congressional delegation penned a joint letter in August, urging Trump not to commute his sentence.
“It’s important that we take a strong stand against pay-to-play politics, especially in Illinois where four of our last eight governors have gone to federal prison for public corruption. Commuting the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, who has a clear and documented record of egregious corruption, sets a dangerous precedent and goes against the trust voters place in elected officials,” the statement read.
Blagojevich was once a cast member of Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice. The president has said that the former governor was treated “unbelievably unfairly.”
