Call to Action: Request the Former President Be Held Accountable
After his election defeat, former President Trump lied about the election, repeatedly and with the direct intent to undermine legitimate results and maintain power. The result was not only a horrific attack on our nation’s Capitol building and the deaths and injuries of close to 150 people, but the undermining of American democracy using a big lie as a tool. We expect accountability from the former president just as from the individual citizens who stormed the Capitol. We cannot move toward a more secure future without first recognizing the truth of recent events — and demanding that accountability should stem from that truth.
To do:
Contact your senators to let them know you expect them to hold a full and fair trial, regardless of partisan consequence and in the best interests of the nation. Ask them to carefully consider all arguments, facts, and evidence, and then follow their oaths as Senate jurors to “do impartial justice according to the Constitutions and laws.” In less than five minutes, you can submit a letter to all your senators at once via our website. Go HERE to submit a letter.
Background:
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
If freedom is created by truth, then accepting things as they are, were, and are to come is essential to our American experiment. Leaders who utilize lies with the direct intent to undermine democracy and constitutional government must be held to account.
This accountability is particularly important when those at the highest levels of government utilize the concept of the “big lie” in an effort to consolidate power. The recent attacks on the Capitol and on our very institutions and processes of freedom demonstrate clearly how vulnerable many citizens are to these tactics. But we should not prosecute these citizens while also allowing those who deceived, incited, and encouraged them to be held blameless. We must reaffirm the things we know to be true and hold our leaders accountable to any attacks on both truth and freedom. Impeachment is the mechanism to accomplish this.
First Truth: Donald Trump did not win the 2020 election. Arguments otherwise or claims of great or systematic fraud are patently false.
Second Truth: Former President Trump has been unwilling to accept his defeat. He has never congratulated President Biden, and he refused to attend the Inauguration. Under warnings of impeachment, he did, finally, in the wake of the Capitol riots, admit he would not serve a second term. This came more than two months after the election.
Third Truth: Trump has gone to great and possibly illegal lengths to dispute his loss. These actions include 1) mounting an extensive disinformation campaign against the validity of the election (see also here, here, and here), 2) pressuring the secretary of state of Georgia to find 11,780 extra votes to give him a victory in that state, 3) summoning Michigan’s Republican leaders to the White House for “an extraordinary meeting” to subvert the democratic process that handed the state to Biden, 4) conspiring with officials at the Department of Justice to fabricate false cases of voter fraud in Georgia, and 5) rallying supporters through lies to convene in Washington, D.C., to “fight” the Electoral College certification by members of Congress.
Fourth Truth: At Trump’s encouragement and due to his lies, domestic terrorists and insurrectionists attacked the Capitol while Congress participated in its constitutional duty to count the votes of the Electoral College. Five people died as a result of the riots, and two officers later died by suicide; at least 140 police were injured. Trump’s responsibility for the attack on our Capitol is broadly recognized on both sides of the political aisle (though some Republicans have, of late, walked back their initial statements). Senator Mitch McConnell (TN-R) has said the mob that stormed the building had been “fed lies” and “provoked by the president” to carry out its assault. Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23rd District) has said Trump “bears responsibility” for the violence.
In short, Trump lied about the election, repeatedly and with the direct intent to undermine legitimate results and to maintain power.
As a nation, we are facing many significant challenges. We cannot move toward a more secure future without first recognizing the truth of recent events and demanding that accountability should stem from that truth. As citizens of the United States of America we must use our collective voice to ask our elected representatives to provide accountability. Too many of those representatives have been complicit in an attempt to undermine American democracy using a big lie as a tool. They will not now demand accountability unless we communicate that it is required.
We ask the Senate to hold a full and fair trial. This means data and testimony are sought and not suppressed, regardless of partisan consequence.
We ask that senators carefully consider all arguments, facts, and evidence, and then follow their oaths as Senate jurors to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.”
We ask that each senator act in the best interests of the nation and with an eye to a more just and democratic future.
Just as in November, when a record number of Americans went to the polls, as citizens we must now raise our individual voices and contact our representatives. They must know we are committed to living in a democratic nation based in truth and accountability — and that no individual is above that exacting requirement.
