Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats did not celebrate the impeachment of President Trump by the House.
“There was no joy in that ceremony,” Jeffries, a Democrat, said on Fox News Sunday. “From the beginning through the end, Speaker Pelosi has been clear that we are going to proceed in a very serious and solemn and sober fashion.”
Anchor Chris Wallace pressed the New York lawmaker, citing photographs of Democratic leaders smiling as they signed the articles of impeachment against Trump and sent them to the Senate for trial.
Republicans complained that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi handed out pens used to sign the articles to members of her caucus as a keepsake to mark what many of them have called a “historic moment in American history.”
So much for Pelosi’s supposed serious and somber impeachment process.
She was handing out pens like party favors at the signing ceremony.
Just another example of how disgusting and partisan this impeachment charade has been.
https://t.co/iMBnC819Cy— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) January 16, 2020
“This is a very serious matter, and we take it to heart,” the California lawmaker said last week of the impeachment process. “In a very solemn way.”
“All the participants look pretty happy,” Wallace said to Jeffries.
Jeffries said impeachment was not a personal attack on the president, as Trump and his Republican defenders in Congress have claimed.
“We don’t dislike this president,” he said. “But we do love America. We do love democracy. We do love the Constitution. And in America, no one is above the law.”
Trump faces two articles of impeachment, one for abuse of power and another for obstruction of Congress. The impeachment centers on Trump’s relations with Ukraine and a July 25, 2019, phone call, during which he pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump has called his impeachment a “total witch hunt” that seeks to reverse the outcome of the 2016 election.
