Marshall says country should ‘move on’ as Trump’s Senate trial for incitement approaches
Sen. Roger Marshall called for the country to move on as the Senate prepares to try former President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection that resulted in the deaths of five people and temporarily halted Congress’s certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
“I think it’s time for this country to move on,” the Kansas Republican told reporters Friday when asked what consequences Trump should face for his actions on Jan. 6, when he urged his supporters to head to the Capitol. “I think it’s unconstitutional to have an impeachment trial for a person, a president who’s left office.”
Marshall was among a group of six senators — including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley — who voted to block ratification of Biden’s victory in key states after the Capitol was cleared of rioters. Marshall, who announced days earlier that he would oppose certification, said he didn’t believe “that many people think that my actions led to the rioting.”
“I think most Kansans believe that we have to take responsibility for our own actions and the people, the rioters themselves, have to take that responsibility,” Marshall said, adding that he condemned all riots.
Marshall made the comments following a tour of a COVID-19 vaccination site at Advent Health in Shawnee.
The Senate will sit in judgment of Trump when his impeachment trial begins in early February. But Marshall and 44 other Republicans tried unsuccessfully to stop the trial this week, arguing that the trial is unconstitutional, in part because Chief Justice John Roberts won’t preside.
The Senate has held impeachment trials in the past for officials after they left office, but never a president. Democrats and some Republicans say not holding Trump accountable now sets a precedent that could allow presidents to act with impunity in their final weeks in office.
But Marshall questioned whether holding a trial for Trump will open the door to the impeachment of other ex-presidents.
“Should we do an impeachment trial, then, on Barack Obama, here when the Republicans get control back of the House in two years, going back over his, the FBI’s secret investigations of a private citizen? Should we go back and impeach Secretary Clinton for some of her actions regarding Benghazi?” Marshall said. “So I think it’s a very bad precedent and I think it’s unconstitutional.”
Some senators have floated the possibility of censuring Trump, given that the chance of convicting him appears next to nothing. Marshall made no mention of censure.
“I remember back when President Nixon resigned on my birthday in 1974 and shortly after President Ford gave him a pardon and everyone was clamoring that that was the wrong thing to do,” Marshall said. “Having this discussion with my grandma, who’s kind of the political guru of the family, and she said something to the effect of, ‘Roger, history will judge President Nixon. We have to move on, that this country has to heal.’”
Marshall then added, in response to a follow-up question, that he is not advocating that Biden pardon Trump.
On COVID-19, Marshall distanced himself from the Trump administration’s decision this fall to use CVS and Walgreens to administer vaccines in long-term care facilities. The pharmacy giants have been faulted for working too slowly.
“So hindsight’s 20-20. That’s not the way I would have done it, especially for rural America, for rural Kansas,” Marshall said. He called for greater involvement by community pharmacies, health departments and doctor offices in vaccinations.
“They’ve been the backbone of vaccinations for decades,” he said.
