Senator Rand Paul said that if Democrats insist on impeaching President Trump over his rhetoric on January 6th then Senate majority Leader Chuck Schumer should also be considered “for inciting violence” in the past.
“I think if we are going to criminalize speech and somehow impeach everybody who says, oh, go fight to hear your voices heard, really we ought to impeach Chuck Schumer then,” the Kentucky Republican told Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace. “He went to the Supreme Court, stood in front of the Supreme Court and said specifically, hey [Justice Neil] Gorsuch, hey [Justice Brett] Kavanaugh, you’ve unleashed a whirlwind, and you’re going to pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you continue with these awful decisions.”
“This inflammatory wording, this violent rhetoric of Chuck Schumer was so bad that the chief justice, who rarely says anything publicly, immediately said this kind of language is dangerous as a mob tried to invade the Supreme Court,” he continued. “So if people want to hold President Trump accountable for language, there has to be a consistent standard, and to my mind, it’s a partisan farce because they’re not doing anything to Chuck Schumer, not doing anything to Rep. Omar, not doing anything to Maxine Waters. It’s just not fair. It’s just partisan politics under a different name.”
Paul was referring to an incident in March 2020 when Schumer identified Kavanaugh and Gorsuch by name in front of the a crowd of supporters and warned them that they had “released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Schumer’s words drew a rebuke from Chief Justice Roberts who said, “Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”
Paul was steadfast that if President Trump is going to be held accountable then so should Democrats.
“I don’t condone any of the language and, like I say, I opposed philosophically and voted against overturning the election,” Paul said. “However, I think you’re going to see the Trump defense play video of Maxine Waters telling crowds to mob Trump administration and restaurants and attack them. They’ll probably show clips of Cory Booker saying, get up in their face of these Congresspeople.”
“I think you’re going to see all of this and people are going to have to judge for themselves, are we going to impeach and potentially criminally prosecute people for political speech when they get — say, get up and fight for your country, let your voices be heard,” he continued.
