On Friday evening Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump over the deadly Capitol insurrection will begin the week of Feb. 8.
"We all want to put this awful chapter in our nation's history behind us. But healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability. And that is what this trial will provide," said Senator Schumer.
"The names of Cruz and Hawley should go down in history next to people like Benedict Arnold," Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego told Business Insider. "They are just traitors to the country and traitors to the Constitution."
John Dean, the former White House Counsel for Richard Nixon who provided key testimony against Nixon as a witness in the 1973 Nixon impeachment hearings, took to Twitter Saturday afternoon:
Americans cannot get a fair Senate Impeachment trial of Trump’s insurrection with insurrectionists on the jury. Senators Hawley, Cruz, Graham, Johnson and others who pushed the big lie are co-conspirators and should not sit in judgment of Trump, rather they MUST BE DISQUALIFIED!
— John W. Dean (@JohnWDean) January 23, 2021
As Common Dreams reported Thursday, a group of seven Democrats filed an ethics complaint on Thursday requesting an investigation into the two senators' roles in inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Friday, Hawley attempted to defend his role saying "I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections. That's my job, and I will keep doing it."
But few were buying Hawley's defense:
Sen. Hawley is trying to wiggle out of inciting a riot that killed 5 by saying “I was just representing my constituents” - but only those who wish to overturn the election and resurrect the Confederacy. https://t.co/39MdcfRwwc
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 23, 2021
Are the Senators who voted to overturn the election results and particularly Hawley and Cruz who helped incite insurrection going to be permitted to vote in the trial to convict Trump?
— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) January 23, 2021
So many of the GOP Senators (e.g. Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, etc.) were complicit in Trump's Big Lie and the instigation and provocation of insurrection, we need to DEMAND their recusal from the Impeachment Trial.
— Land Snark (@snark_land) January 23, 2021
If they won't, we need to charge as conspirators.
