Thread by @cabin__13

Can we talk about the cognitive dissonance required of a party politician?

A thread about @SenAlexander and his thoughts on the impeachment of President Trump v the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett:
1/19

Here's @SenAlexander, Senator from my state, Tennessee. He's a Republican. A good Republican.

Once, running for President, he warned, “The worst thing we could do is to replace the arrogant empire we defeated with an arrogant empire of our own.”
2/19
congress.gov/member/lamar-a…

You may remember that the current president, Donald Trump, was impeached for withholding Congressionally-appropriated funds from Ukraine in order to coerce that country into investigating American citizens (& political rivals).

We start there.
3/19

It is the Senate’s job to try impeachments, to (in this instance) determine if the President should be removed from Office. It’s in the Constitution. It is the Senate’s Power alone. It is their duty.

4/19

@SenAlexander admitted to his constituents in a letter from January 20 that the impeachment trial was a “constitutional duty” of the Senate. He referred to the pending trial as one of the Senate’s “constitutional responsibilities.”

5/19

https://twitter.com/cabin__13/status/1268222363025453064

After the trial was over, @SenAlexander acknowledged that President Trump did what he was accused of. He cited it as the reason he voted to make it the first impeachment trial in history to feature no witnesses.

6/19

“There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid [] to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens[.]”

It was clear to @SenAlexander: The President did it & his actions “undermine[d] the principle of equal justice under the law.”

7/19

Despite that determination, after the trial, @SenAlexander ducked his constitutional duty by saying the “question [] is not whether the president did it, but whether the US Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did.”

8/19

https://twitter.com/cabin__13/status/1268222366460588035

In that letter, @SenAlexander then pretends the Constitution does not give the Senate a duty in impeachment, skirting his previously held responsibilities:

“I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election.”

9/19

Confirming Presidentially-nominated judges to the Supreme Court is also a constitutional responsibility of the Senate. It is in their power.

10/19

This is what the Republican Party has said as they rush to confirm Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court during a Presidential election: The Constitution gives them the power to do so, so they will do so.

And how about the senior Republican Senator from Tennessee?

11/19

What does @SenAlexander say about the possibility of adding a Supreme Court Justice while the Presidential election that kept him from making a decision on impeachment is underway?

He does not think the American people should have a say in this decision.

12/19

Over 27 million Americans have already voted for who they want to be their next President, 20% of 2016’s total.

That includes over 600,000 Tennesseans, 24.6% of all Tennesseans that voted in 2016.

@SenAlexander does not care.

Not in this case.

13/19
electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-202…

When it came to removing a president of his own party for withholding Congressionally-appropriated funds in order to coerce a foreign nation into investigating American citizens 9 months before Election Day, @SenAlexander punted to the American people to decide what to do.

14/19

When it comes to confirming a Supreme Court Justice of his own party in the midst of the Presidential election, less than 3 weeks before Election Day, @SenAlexander does not care what the American people think about what to do.

15/19

In impeachment, @SenAlexander could not face up to his constitutional responsibilities because doing so would've required him to vote to remove of a president of his own party. If it was otherwise, he would have said so explicitly. Instead, he demurred to the election.

16/19

For a lifetime appointment to the SC, nominated by a president @SenAlexander believes “undermine[d] the principle of equal justice under the law,” he's now ready to make a judgment based on intelligence, character, & temperament, absent the opinion of the American people.

17/19

Because the Republican Party cannot wait 3 weeks, from fear the winds be too obviously changed then. So all Republicans must fall in line with the rush to confirm Barrett regardless of anything they may have said or thought in the past. And that includes @SenAlexander.

18/19

Because @SenAlexander is a good Republican.

And because he was always that.

And only that.

19/19