Opinion Pieces

This op-ed by Rep. Norman was originally published in The State on February 7th, 2020.

We’ve been through everything from inappropriate warrants by former President Barack Obama’s administration for the FBI to spy on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign to debunked conspiracy theories about Russian collusion — but finally the siege of now-President Trump has at least been temporarily put to rest.

The entire impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives was a flagrant disregard of due process, historical precedent and fundamental fairness. It was both striking and peculiar that after Articles of Impeachment passed the House without a single Republican vote, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still withheld those Articles from the Senate for almost a month.

As if suspended in midair, Pelosi realized that Democrats had gone over the cliff and couldn’t stick the landing. Pelosi knew then — just as the nation knows today — that the Senate was likely to dismiss the charges against President Trump with the same ease shown by her House colleagues when they made up those chargesAnd that’s exactly what happened Wednesday when senators voted to acquit; that evening Americans went to bed assured that their duly elected president would continue to serve not just those who elected him, but all Americans.

What I have witnessed in Congress over the past year has been nothing short of a constitutional crisis. Yet despite my frustration I am grateful that this process has been exposed for what it truly is. Impeachment was never about “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” — it was about politics.

It was simply an attempt to overturn the 2016 presidential election and to prevent the same outcome of a Trump victory in 2020. It is worth remembering the words of Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, who expressed concern that “if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.”

Some of my congressional colleagues are hoping that voters will forget about this whole charade. But I disagree. I believe that voters should remember what it was like for the president and Congress to be effectively held hostage by congressional pirates.

Voters need to understand that meaningful work has been left undone — and important issues in Washington have been put on hold — while Democrats put our nation through this very dark and unnecessary chapter in American history.

As we move forward it is time to double down on the policies and priorities that have been responsible for our booming economy, major trade wins, record-low unemployment, new federal judges, regulatory cuts, soaring stock market and military improvements. To achieve that we need four more years of a president who has been freed from the tethers of impeachment.

Voters should remember that in November.

A Republican from Rock Hill, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman represents South Carolina’s 5^th Congressional District.