Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said Sunday he worried that the Democratic effort to impeach President Trump would “dumb down and destroy the country.”
He characterized the push to remove Mr. Trump from office as a “disagreement over policy” led by Democrats who “don’t like President Trump, they don’t like his demeanor, so they’ve decided to sort of criminalize politics.”
“But I don’t think it’s a good thing,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t think it’s a good day for the country. I think it’s a sad day because I hope it doesn’t devolve into that every president like in different parts of Latin America where we either impeach or throw presidents in jail because we don’t like their politics. I think that will really dumb down and destroy the country.”
“I hope it doesn’t devolve into…we either impeach or throw presidents into jail just because we don’t like their politics. I think that will dumb down and destroy the country,” GOP Sen. Rand Paul says as articles of impeachment go to the House floor for a vote this week #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/wUu9wcg1Xt
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 15, 2019
The House Judiciary Committee voted Friday along party lines to move forward with two articles of impeachment, which now move to the House Rules Committee on Tuesday. A full House vote is expected Wednesday.
Asked if he could carry out “impartial justice” in the Senate, as required in the impeachment oath, Mr. Paul said, “I would say that my oath is to the Constitution.”
“We’ve seen the evidence, we’re going to hear the evidence repeated, but we’re not going to see any new evidence,” Mr. Paul said. “I think all of America has seen this. What we’ve found is that this is a very partisan exercise.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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