At House plenary on Wednesday, US Representative Nancy Mace, R-Charleston, said President Donald Trump should be held responsible for fanning the flames of last week’s violence on Capitol Hill, but said his impeachment would be a process rushed and divisive.
In his first speech since his oath last week, Mace said he wished the impeachment was not the first item she would have to deal with as a congressman.
“The United States House of Representatives has every right to impeach the President of the United States,” said Mace.
“But what we are doing today, rushing this impeachment into an hour-or-two-hour debate on the floor of this chamber and bypassing the judiciary, raises big questions about the constitutionality of this process,” she said.
His brief remarks came when legislators in Washington started the debate over the president’s impeachment for fomenting the attack on the Capitol during the certification of the Electoral College last week. Some Republicans have said they will support the effort today, but Mace is not among them.
Mace has openly criticized Trump’s accusations of his electoral loss, which has motivated thousands of his supporters to invade the Capitol in an unprecedented act of violence that left five people dead.
But during her speech, she blamed her Republican and Democratic colleagues for the tone that led to violent actions in the United States.
“Republicans and Democrats need to recognize that this is not the first day of violence that we have seen,” said Mace. “We have seen violence in our country for the past nine months. And we need to recognize, first of all, that our words have consequences that there is violence on both sides of the corridor. We contribute to that.”
Differences in perceptions also ignited alignments within the GOP. An Axios Tuesday night report showed that Mace had engaged in a heated text exchange with US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., In a group message with all the freshman members of the Republican Party.
Greene is well known for her support for the groundless conspiracy theory QAnon, which claims that Trump is secretly fighting a circle of “deep-state” pedophiles, and also alleged unproven electoral fraud that led to his loss.
“I am disgusted with what you and other Q conspiracy theorists did last week in the chamber after all the violence,” Mace texted her on Tuesday.
During his speech, Mace attacked Republican lawmakers who believe the baseless allegations of widespread electoral interference.
“I also believe in the need to hold each person accountable, even members of Congress, if they contributed to the violence that has occurred here,” said Mace.
The House is prepared to start a vote on Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday night.
This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.
Reach Thomas Novelly at 843-937-5713. Follow him @TomNovelly on Twitter.