REPUBLICAN REBUKE: Top GOP lawmaker not happy with Trump’s anti-constitutional tirade
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) a high-ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee pushed back on Donald Trump’s recent insane and unpatriotic call to “terminate” the Constitution and install the wannabe dictator as President.
In an interview with CBS‘s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, Turner replied to her question asking if the Republican congressman condemned Trump’s suggestion.
“Absolutely,” Turner responded, according to The Hill. “And I believe, answering your question, that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.”
“I, first of all, vehemently disagree with, with the statement that Trump made. Trump has made 1,000 statements in which I disagree.”
During the January 6th insurrection, Turner urged the then-President to urge his supporters to stop the attack on the Capitol, calling for the “peaceful transition of power,” and posting on this Twitter:
I am appalled at what is occurring in the US Capitol right now. President Trump needs to call for an end to this violence and permit Congress to facilitate a peaceful transition of power.
— US Rep. Mike Turner (@RepMikeTurner) January 6, 2021
Trump has been on a rampage recently, singing the same old tired song about “hoaxes,” “witch hunts,” and mass voter fraud as the Department of Justice turns up the heat on its criminal investigation into whether the former President violated federal laws when removing and improperly storing top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the White House in January 2021.
The appointment of highly respected special prosecutor Jack Smith to the case has the ex-President pulling out all the unconstitutional stops to stay out of federal prison.
Turner also condemned recent reports that Trump entertained vocal anti-semite, Kanye West and well-known Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at his Palm Beach resort, calling it “atrocious.”
“I think everybody both condemns and is shocked and is disgusted and nauseated by the fact that we’re, even in this year, in 2022, having anyone that would make statements like that,” Turner told Brennan, “nevertheless have anybody who would engage in a conversation with someone who’s making statements like that.”
While Turner’s public condemnation of Trump is admirable, the Ohio Republican voted against the impeachment of Trump for inciting the insurrection, and against the creation of a congressional committee to investigate the violent event.
That marked the second time the congressman refused to hold Trump accountable in an impeachment inquiry.
“I do not believe what the president did is okay,” Turner told Ohio’s Dayton Daily News during Trump’s first impeachment trial for withholding federal funds to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden. “But I certainly haven’t seen anything that rises to the level of impeachment.”
Turner was applauded by President Trump for that statement.
If the American people have learned anything in recent years, when it comes to the GOP, it’s best to take their words with a grain of salt.
Original reporting by Zach Schonfeld at The Hill.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
