Sen. Sherrod Brown to Trump, ‘His Spineless Followers’: We Will Count All the Votes

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said Wednesday on MSNBC to President Donald Trump and “his spineless followers” that former Vice President Joe Biden would win the presidential election when all the votes are counted.

Brown said, “I mean, Joe Biden won this election, it looks like he won, I’m pretty sure he won because he was the most pro-worker candidate that we’ve nominated in either party for a generation.”

This is the letter Sherrod Brown sent to me in response to the letter I sent to him. (See my letter below)

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****Dear Chaplain Z....:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the attack on the United States Capitol. January 6, 2020, will forever be a dark day in our nation’s history. That day, a mob descended on the Capitol at the urging of former President Trump and attempted an insurrection against the United States government. Like millions of Ohioans, I am outraged by these domestic terrorists’ efforts to overthrow our nation’s democratic process through violence, and will take all steps necessary to hold them and the politicians who incited this riot accountable.

On November 7, 2020, President Biden was elected as the 46th President of the United States. This election ran smoothly, despite the unprecedented challenge of a global pandemic, and there is zero evidence of any voter fraud, irregularities, or interference. In the months after the election, President Trump and his allies orchestrated a misinformation campaign designed to overturn the will of the American people. All of their allegations lacked evidence and have been repeatedly debunked by experts, including Republican secretaries of state and election officials. President Trump’s legal challenges were dismissed by more than 60 judges, appointed by both parties.

Former President Trump’s refusal to accept the decision of the American people sowed dangerous doubt about the integrity of our elections. And on the morning of January 6th, the day Congress was set to count states’ electoral votes and certify Joe Biden’s election, President Trump told his supporters to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol and “fight like hell.” Armed with guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, machetes, crossbows, stun guns, Molotov cocktails, and pipe bombs, rioters roamed the halls of the U.S. Capitol, attempting to stop the counting of Americans’ legitimate votes. They attacked Capitol Police officers, killing one officer and injuring more than 140 others, including gouging out an officer’s eye.

Despite this destruction, and even after Republicans finally joined Democrats in urging President Trump to call off his mob, Trump waited hours before releasing any statement. Shortly after, he released another video sympathizing with the mob, telling them “We love you. You’re very special.”

While this attempt to overturn the will of the American voters failed, we cannot move past this incident without also addressing the glaring discrepancy between how law enforcement responded to a group of armed, belligerent white rioters, and the responses we’ve seen to peaceful protestors seeking racial justice. This summer, peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors outside the White House and around the country were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and a full militarized response, while white rioters were able to breach the Capitol.

After the rioters were finally removed from the building, the Capitol’s predominantly Black custodial staff was forced to clean up the mob’s wreckage. The double standard on display was a sickening reminder of the work we still must do to create a more just and equal society. Both the repeated attacks on Black Americans exercising their first amendment rights, and any leniency for these traitors and white supremacists, are unacceptable. Everyone involved in this violent riot must be held accountable under the law.

On January 13, 2021, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump for his role in inciting this insurrection against the United States of America. On January 25, 2021, the House delivered the impeachment article, charging former President Trump with “incitement of insurrection,” to the Senate, initiating the fourth impeachment trial of a president in U.S. history.

On February 9, 2021, the Senate initiated impeachment trial proceedings. Over the course of a week, we heard testimony from House managers and from former President Trump’s attorneys over the impeachment of Donald J. Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors. As a senator, my job was to be an impartial juror, and make my final decision based on the evidence.

After hearing all of the testimony and evidence presented, on February 13, 2021, I joined a large bipartisan majority of my colleagues in voting to convict Donald Trump. While the final vote in the Senate of 57-43 fell short of the two thirds necessary for conviction, this was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment vote in American history, because the House managers presented undeniable evidence that the former President of the United States incited a violent insurrection, aimed at throwing out Americans’ votes.

We must hold those who incited an insurrection accountable for the destruction and death that took place in our Capitol. Those who voted to acquit sent a message to our country and the world that violent attacks on our citizens, our democracy, and the will of the people have no consequences. For these reasons, I have also called for an investigation into and the resignation of Senators Cruz and Hawley for their role in inflaming the insurrection and betraying their oaths of office. I will continue to speak out against abuses of power and implore my colleagues to do the same. No one should be above the law.

We must now show the American people that our democracy works and their votes matter by delivering real results for Ohioans and the change they voted for.

Thank you again for contacting me about this important issue.

Sincerely,

Sherrod Brown
United States Senator

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Dear Senator Brown,

After Ohio’s landslide victory for Donald Trump last November, it is hard to imagine all that has gone on since. Somehow we now find ourselves in the position of another impeachment trial against the President in the US Senate. The vindictiveness that brought us to this moment is a disgrace to our nation.

President Trump is now seemingly a private citizen, although in my heart I view him as a president in exile. Despite my opinions, I’m told he must be seen as a former president and as a private citizen. So be it. I’ll oblige.

However, that same argument is what makes this Senate trial for impeachment a travesty. The Senate should not be trying private citizens for anything. Where will it stop? Will other Americans be called in to the Senate to answer to those whose politics allows them to silence and punish their opponents? May it never be! Setting such a precedent should be fought every step of the way.

Senator Brown, no fair-minded person can ignore that we thought there had been whole-scale cheating in this last election. They must have noticed that a huge number of us considered President Trump the winner. As one who watched the returns on election eve, I must say I was stunned at the improbability in many states of hundreds of thousands of votes leads evaporating overnight with vote returns that were impossibly one sided in favor of Biden. So too were many others. It was a topic of discussion for weeks leading up to January 6. It is no surprise that many were calling for us to fight what seemed to be fraud.

A simple question. My last sentence in the above paragraph uses the word “fight”. Does that mean I’ve just advocated burning, looting, or assaulting? You know better, Senator Brown. You are an educated man, and you understand the many colloquial expressions that color our English language. As when I heard it from the President, I never saw it as anything other than a colloquialism calling on me to put every ounce of strength into opposing a fraudulent vote. My old high school “fight song” had a line that went “fight, fight, fight”. Did we bring guns and knives to games? Hardly.

So, Senator Brown, I simply don’t see how an honest man can blame the president for violence when he specifically called for a peaceful protest march. At the same time, an honest man will remember that we did not believe the vote totals as reported. That was the reason for the protest. Protesting is constitutionally protected, as you well know. It was a peaceful assembly focused on redressing a grievance regarding a fraudulent vote. Any violence is the responsibility of those who engaged in it. A person is responsible for their own crimes.

Ignoring for a moment the constitutional requirement that an impeachment trial requires a president who can actually be removed and disqualifed, I want to remind that the peaceable assembly was constitutional, that the speaker called for it to be peaceful, and that with hundreds of thousands in attendance, that it was overwhelmingly peaceful…just as called for.
I cannot fathom a vote to convict. I would consider it to be unknowing and unwise.
Sincerely,

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