Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Wednesday evening following his vote not to convict President Donald Trump blamed Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for permanently lowering the impeachment bar.
From here on out, Kennedy said, presidents will always be at risk of being impeached over political disagreements rather than the Constitution’s standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
He also blasted lawmakers, particularly Pelosi, for thinking that most Americans are not smart enough to understand the political machinations in Washington.
In that vein, he noted that Pelosi had claimed that impeaching President Trump was an imperative, but then held onto the articles for about a month before sending them to the Senate, as the Constitution requires.
“[I]t’s so over the top,” he said. “I mean, this side that if we don’t stop the president, he will fix the next election. If we don’t stop the president, he will sell Alaska.
“The world — western civilization is coming to an end. And yet, the speaker held on to the articles of impeachment for what? Three or four weeks?” Kennedy noted.
The Louisiana Republican also noted that the Democrat reasoning implied they did not think Americans were astute enough to see the contradictions.
“You know, they — many of the folks in Washington, including the speaker, I think, they think the American people are morons — that they can’t see through all of this,” Kennedy added.