Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who was the House’s impeachment manager during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, says he believes President Trump’s impeachment Chamber was wrong for the second time.
In a conversation with Fox News Sunday, Hutchinson criticized both President Trump’s rhetoric about the November election and the House’s impeachment decision before he stepped down anyway.
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“Impeachment is something that is both a legal equation, but it is also a political equation, and I do not believe that with the remaining weeks left in President Trump’s term it served our country well to pass impeachment in the House” , Hutchinson said.
Now that the impeachment has taken place, however, Hutchinson said the Senate must hear the facts and legal arguments in a trial where “the outcome is unpredictable”.
Although he was against impeachment, Republican Hutchinson said Trump’s continuing challenge to the election result “was wrong and did not serve our nation well,” pointing to the violent protest in the U.S. Capitol building on January 6.
Asked about President Trump’s responsibility for the January 6 riot, Hutchinson did not specifically blame the president, but said that Trump invited people to a rally, “used very aggressive language” and “deceived people about … the that happened during the election. “
Hutchinson is now focused on preventing a similar incident in his home state on the day of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. He confirmed that he had received information about possible disturbances and that he is preparing law enforcement to take precautions.
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“We are aware that there will be activity in our capital and in capitals across the country,” said Hutchinson. “A lot of this comes from the FBI’s intelligence and we are taking the necessary precautions to ensure that we protect our capital and our citizens.”
Hutchinson said he did not believe that intelligence had risen to a level that required him to call the National Guard, but he is still planning to have a reinforced police presence around the state capitol this week.
“We are using civil law enforcement, we have response teams there, they will have an enhanced presence on Capitol Hill for Tuesday,” he said. “In fact, we have a demonstration for today and there is not – we have no specific intelligence that there will be violence associated with these demonstrations, but we want to be extremely cautious.”
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Hutchinson said he thinks “the deterrent value of what we’ve seen in the past few days has had an impact and, hopefully, lowered the level of threat”.
Two men who were arrested for the alleged involvement on January 6 are from Hutchinson state. The governor asked them and other participants “to comply with the full measure of the law”.