Trump impeachment vote: Louie Gohmert accuses Pelosi of impeachable comment quoting 'uprisings all over country'
On Wednesday, January 13, during the proceedings for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Republican Party Representative Louie Gohmert made an attempt to use Nancy Pelosi’s old remarks to back up his point that Trump's words on January 6 don't constitute an impeachable offense. As per the U.S. Representative from Texas's 1st congressional district, Pelosi’s 2018 remarks on why there weren't "uprisings all over the country," over migrant children being separated from their parents were proof that Trump’s words were within the bounds of acceptable speech.
Gohmert said, “From our side, we didn't take those to be impeachable because we didn't believe she surely meant that but by the Democrats taking this action, you're telling me, 'No when we say those things we mean to incite violence’.”
In June 2018, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives -- Pelosi was the House Minority Leader back then -- said that it is "barbaric" to separate migrant children from their parents after they illegally enter the country to seek asylum during a presser. The quote used by Gohmert was just one sentence out of context in a larger speech. Pelosi had said:
“When we had a hearing on a subject related to this, asylum-seeker refugees, et cetera, the American -- the Association of Evangelicals -- the evangelicals -- testified that asylum -- refugees, asylum, that is the -- they called it the crown jewel of America's humanitarianism… Crown jewel of American humanitarianism. And in order to do away with that crown jewel, they're doing away with children being with their moms. This is -- I… I just don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country. And maybe there will be when people realize that this is a policy that they defend. It's a horrible thing, and I don't see any prospect for legislation here.”
Another quote referenced by Gohmert was, “And sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their allies in the Congress of the United States.” That quote was from an August 2020 interview with MSNBC where Pelosi was lambasting Trump for actively sabotaging the U.S. Postal Service ahead of sweeping mail-in voting initiatives for the 2020 elections.
The said quote was preceded by the words, “We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” And they were followed by “They're doing everything they can [to] suppress the vote with [their] actions: scare people, intimidate by saying law enforcement will be there, diminish the role of the postal system in all of this. It's really, actually shameful. Enemies of the state.”
Gohmert was one of the many GOP legislators who were earlier outraged at -- and refused to comply with -- the new security measures adopted by the security team at the U.S. Capitol and demanded that they be exempted from the rules, which applied to all who entered the House chamber. Gohmert said, "You can't stop me; I'm on my way to a vote" as he walked by Capitol Police, according to HuffPost, when asked to go through metal detectors.
In December, Gohmert filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence, alleging that any action he was to take on January 6, the day Congress certified the Electoral College results, would be fraudulent. A Trump-appointed judge in Texas rejected the suit on January 1 and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals also dismissed it.