In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky discussed the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump .
House Democrats impeached Trump last month, claiming that he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors because he incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. government.
Speaking with anchor Chris Wallace, Paul argued that impeaching and convicting Trump over his rhetoric would be tantamount to criminalizing protected political speech.
By Democrats’ logic, Paul argued, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should be impeached because he, too, has used fiery rhetoric against political opponents.
“If we’re going to criminalize speech, and somehow impeach everybody who says, ‘Go fight to hear your voices heard,’ I mean really we ought to impeach Chuck Schumer then,” Paul said, claiming that Schumer threatened Supreme Court Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch with violence.
“This inflammatory wording, this violent rhetoric of Chuck Schumer was so bad that the chief justice, who rarely says anything publicly, immediately said this kind of language is dangerous as a mob tried to invade the Supreme Court.”
Paul noted that he opposed Trump’s attempts to override the will of the voters and force Congress to overturn the results of the 2002 presidential election, but stressed that there is “zero” chance the former commander-in-chief will be convicted by the Senate.
“People are going to have to judge for themselves… are we going to potentially prosecute people for political speech?” Paul continued, claiming that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision not to preside over the trial speaks volumes about the partisan nature of the procedure.
“This was a strong signal to all of us,” Paul said, pointing out that Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is expected to preside instead of Roberts.
According to Paul, most Republicans agree that the impeachment is unconstitutional, because Trump is no longer president and therefore cannot be removed from office.
As Reuters reported, last week, Paul introduced a motion deeming Trump’s trial unconstitutional. Though the motion failed, all but five GOP senators voted for it, signaling that they have no intention of voting to convict the former president.
Polling suggests that the American public disagrees with Paul and his allies.
As The Inquisitr reported, a new ABC News /Ipsos survey found that 56 percent of Americans want the Senate to convict Trump and prohibit him from ever holding office again.
Trump was first impeached in 2019, but the upper chamber acquitted him of all charges.
