COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rice blamed former President Donald Trump on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, calling the former president's actions that day "nothing short of reprehensible."
The Myrtle Beach Republican, the sole South Carolina House GOP member to vote to impeach Trump after the riot, called Jan. 6 "the day we nearly lost the country out Founders fought for and left for us to preserve."
"January 6th tested the fibers of our democracy and very well could have brought down our country," Rice said in a statement sent to outlets Thursday. "Any reasonable person could have seen the potential for violence that day. Yet, our President did nothing to protect our country and stop the violence. The actions of the President on January 6th were nothing short of reprehensible."
Rice said the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy, which has kept the government stable for hundreds of years, and he celebrated that that trait survived the Jan. 6 riot.
"America is resilient. We are often tested, but we will overcome even the most onerous challenges," Rice said. "We all must do our part to unite, not divide, and ensure something like January 6th never happens again in this great country."
Though once in lockstep with Trump before January 2021, Rice has shifted away from Trump in the one year since. As the anniversary of Jan. 6 has approached, Rice has grown bolder in saying the Republican party needs to shift away from the "divisive" former president.
"The GOP existed before Trump was the candidate," Rice said in an interview this week. "The ideas that we promote haven't changed before, during and since Donald Trump. And the ideals will exist long after t rump is an afterthought."
Rice stunned political watchers when he joined House Democrats and nine other Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for his involvement during and after the riot. Trump spoke to supporters ahead of rioters storming the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to certify the 2020 election results.
Recently, Rice told a reporter that he regretted voting against certification of 2020 election results in two battleground states.
Rice also voted to support a commission to investigate Jan. 6, making him one of few Republicans to do so.
When he launched his bid for reelection in November, he called on Republicans to forge a new path, in which they ditch Trump but hold fast to the policies he promoted.
"We as Republicans, we've got to run on our own ideas and not just focus on one very divisive man," he said at a campaign event in Florence.
Rice's actions, though, have drawn several primary challengers for his seat, up for election in November. He maintains a significant fundraising edge, but several challengers have managed to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece in their efforts to oust him.
Rice has acknowledged that he faces an uphill reelection, and that it ties back to the events of Jan. 6 last year.
"If you hadn't noticed," he joked to supporters in Florence in November, "y'all made my next campaign a little more interesting than the ones in the past."
