Hundreds of Congress officials sign letter to senators urging them to condemn Trump

Hundreds of Congress officials sign letter to senators urging them to condemn Trump

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“We are employees who work for members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, where we have the honor and privilege of serving our country and our fellow citizens. We wrote this letter to share our own opinions and experiences, not the opinions of our employers. But on January 6, 2021, our workplace was attacked by a violent mob that tried to prevent the electoral college’s vote counting, which was prompted by former President Donald J. Trump and his political allies, some of whom we spend every day in the work halls “, wrote more than 370 employees in the letter released on Wednesday.

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives before stepping down in January for inciting the Capitol insurrection, which forced lawmakers and officials to evacuate their offices. Arguments at the Senate trial are scheduled to begin next week, and House impeachment administrators will argue that Trump is “solely responsible” for the riot, according to a document they submitted on Tuesday.

“As Congress officials, we have no vote to condemn Donald J. Trump for his role in inciting the violent attack on Capitol Hill, but our senators do. And for our sake and for the sake of the country, we ask them to vote to condemn the former president and prevent him from taking office again. “

CNN previously reported that the letter began circulating last week. In an effort to get the letter to appeal to Republican officials as well, its writers organized signatures so that employees could sign only with their email addresses, leaving out the offices of the members of Congress they work for.

The signatories to the letter come from more than 100 offices in the Chamber, 15 offices in the Senate and 10 different committees, including the Judiciary, Inspection and Foreign Affairs committees of the Chamber, according to the organizers.

“No one should experience something like this at their workplace,” said an official familiar with the draft letter to CNN last week. “And I think it’s important to tell this part of the story, because it’s not just members of Congress who come to work on Capitol every day. And it’s not just the Capitol employees who were traumatized by what happened. And I think it’s a part of it. The trauma is there; the trauma is very real. And whenever new information appears, you know, you get kind of traumatized. “

This story has been updated with additional information.

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