Patterico's Pontifications

6/14/2021

Chip Roy: Yeah, I Was Never Gonna Vote to Impeach Trump

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



In January, Chip Roy of Texas claimed that he believed Trump had committed impeachable offenses, but rationalized a vote against impeachment by blaming Nancy Pelosi for drafting the articles in a way that targeted Trump’s speech rather than his actual offenses:

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said on the House floor that Trump’s conduct in pressuring the vice president to overturn the election impeachable, but that he opposes the article of impeachment.

“The president of the United States deserves universal condemnation for what was clearly, in my opinion, impeachable conduct, pressuring the vice president to violate his oath to the Constitution,” Roy said.

He said he is against the impeachment measure because it makes an issue of political speech.

This always seemed to me like a politically convenient excuse, from someone who is ambitious and didn’t want to cross his constituents, who would view any vote to impeach as tantamount to treason. When Chip Roy was one of the first out of the gate to condemn Liz Cheney, my opinion was confirmed. Her opinions were hardly out of bounds, if you actually believed that Trump committed impeachable offenses, and ought to have been impeached if only the Democrats had written the articles correctly.

Today John McCormack publishes a piece that makes it clear to me that I was right all along. Oh, how I love to have my confirmation biases gratified!

But why did Roy, who said in January that Trump had clearly committed an impeachable act, think it was so offensive for Cheney to say Trump shouldn’t have a role in the party?

“That an action was condemnable — that an action was impeachable — doesn’t mean necessarily it should be impeached,” Roy said.

“It’s kind of like there are sins in the Bible for which you might leave a spouse — you know, committing adultery, for example. That doesn’t mean that the marriage should fall apart,” he added. “What I think we’ve got to do is work with the president and work with our entire coalition of Republicans behind four years of a really strong agenda and move forward.”

Rationalization City USA, population this guy.

It’s lovely that Roy was willing to condemn Trump for a brief period of time. But it’s not good enough.

Ironically, on the flip side of the coin, his cravenness on impeachment and Cheney may not have been good enough for Trump, who demands unquestioned loyalty at all times in all situations. Just ask Mike Pence. McCormack says someone may be exploiting Roy’s lack of full obsequiousness to primary him:

But is there any reason to believe Trump’s prediction of a Roy primary loss (which reads more like a threat) will come true? Matt McCall, who lost to Roy 47.3 percent to 52.7 percent in the 2018 GOP primary runoff, certainly hopes so.

“I have asked Trump for his endorsement to run against Chip Roy. If Trump endorses, I will run, and we will kick Chip Roy’s ass,” McCall told National Review in a phone interview. “I’ve approached [Trump’s] team. Steve Bannon, I think, is working on that for us.”

Ultimately, McCormack seems to think Roy will be OK. But wow, it would be a shame if his willingness to go in the tank for Trump, but only part of the way, was not enough for the Vindictive Retired Guy in Chief.

48 Responses to “Chip Roy: Yeah, I Was Never Gonna Vote to Impeach Trump”

  1. Garbage people like him are why get more dems in office, and therefor liberal policy.

    Time123 (52fb0e)

  2. Chip Roy may have folded like a cheap suit, but it will be interesting to see what happens to Tom Rice:
    ……
    ……..He defended Trump during his first impeachment, saying “he has been the target of an astounding barrage of lies, deceit, and corruption.” And he objected to certifying the 2020 election results from Pennsylvania and Arizona that Trump falsely said were fraudulent.

    But on Jan. 13, Rice shocked Washington and voters here …….He voted to impeach Trump on charges he incited the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
    ……..
    “What do you call somebody who votes with Trump 99 percent of the time? A traitor,” Rice said with a chuckle, recalling a joke he had read several months ago.
    …….
    When pressed by angry Republican constituents, Rice defends his decision and tells them he would vote that way again.

    “If you want a congressman who’s going to choose a personality over the Constitution, I’m not your guy,” he said at an event in Loris after calling Trump a “bully” in response to a question asking him why he did not vote in line with what a majority of his constituents wanted.

    During his monthly “Coffee with Your Congressman” events, Rice outlines why he voted to impeach. After escaping the House floor and passing by bloodied and injured Capitol Police officers, Rice sought refuge in the office of Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), where he watched hours of television. What he didn’t see that day amid the violence was any sight of Trump directing his supporters to stop their assault on the Capitol.
    …….
    What cemented his vote was Trump’s tweet saying that Vice President Mike Pence lacked “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution” and instead oversaw the certification of Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.

    “To me, that is completely despicable, and I will vote that way every single time. For him to be calling Mike Pence a coward and him sitting at the White House surrounded by Secret Service and tweeting while Mike Pence is in the middle of all that, and he’s a coward? Give me a break,” Rice told a constituent at his Loris event.

    He added, “If the president, by force, can intimidate Congress into voting their way, then we might as well do away with Congress and hand it over to a king. What he did in my mind is what dictators do.”

    But that argument could be a hard sell in a district that voted 59 percent for Trump and 41 percent for Biden in the 2020 election. Rice won his 2020 race with 62 percent of the vote.
    ……..
    Opponents are lining up for a primary fight. Ken Richardson, the current Horry County Board of Education chairman, says he probably would have challenged Rice regardless because of their differences on education and business growth but decided to jump in early in February after constituents asked him to following Rice’s vote against Trump.

    There are other candidates mulling a run purely based on loyalty to Trump, including media personality Graham Allen, who recently moved to South Carolina and announced his intention to run against Rice.

    “Unlike Tom Rice, the sacred oath to defend our Constitution and country from threats foreign and domestic means something to me,” Allen says on his website, which has pictures of him with Trump.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  3. Oh, how I love to have my confirmation biases gratified!

    What some call “confirmation bias” might sometimes be an ability to see a pattern and predict the most likely outcome.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  4. “Unlike Tom Rice, the sacred oath to defend our Constitution and country from threats foreign and domestic means something to me,” Allen says on his website, which has pictures of him with Trump.

    “Something” = Defend Donald Trump above all else, always, unconditionally.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  5. ‘Look Back In Anger’ is a 1959 film with Richard Burton about a man raging against society by lashing out at his demoralized wife, his best friend and his mistress.

    Meanwhile: ‘President Joe Biden confused Libya and Syria three times during a Sunday press conference at the G-7 Summit in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The president was responding to a question from NBC News’ Peter Alexander about what actions the administration plans to take against Russian President Vladimir Putin.’

    So let’s impeach the ‘Vindictive Retired Guy in Chief’ again. And again. And again…

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  6. So let’s impeach the ‘Vindictive Retired Guy in Chief’ again. And again. And again…

    No, let’s try to prevent him from pulling the same election-overturning stunt again but more successfully.
    And let’s make it clear that a political party should not base itself on unwavering loyalty to one person as the only nonnegotiable principle.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  7. And let’s make it clear that a political party should not base itself on unwavering loyalty to one person as the only nonnegotiable principle.

    Hmmmmm. You mean… Reaganoptics.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  8. @6 your issue is with roy’s constituents

    maybe figure out a way to impeach them

    JF (e1156d)

  9. Since this is one of those “who said what and when” exposé …

    “Trump savors post-presidency vindication streak: The 45th president is enjoying a run of belated validation on a series of controversial issues, including: the Covid lab-leak theory, Russian bounties, Lafayette Park police tactics, hydroxychloroquine, and his words to a Georgia election investigator.”

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/hcq-russian-bounties-lafayette-park-wuhan-lab-trump-rides-wave

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  10. Roy was one of Erick Erickson’s favorites at The Resurgent and he penned a few pieces at the site. I wasn’t impressed. He struck me as a Trump loyalist first.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  11. @6 your issue is with roy’s constituents

    maybe figure out a way to impeach them
    JF (e1156d) — 6/14/2021 @ 10:10 am

    Nothing compels any candidate to make “I love Donald Trump unconditioanlly” the core of his/her campaign. If Republican candidates would act like leaders and drop the servile insanity, then GOP voters would be making choices on normal political criteria, not cult-worship.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  12. enjoying a run of belated validation on a series of controversial issues,

    To believe that Trump was “validated” on all those issues, one has to read the evidence selectively and also disregard all the times he has said very different things — and absurd things — on any given issue.

    Did he not really go out for a ridiculous photo op shortly after Bill Barr asked the Park Police “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?” Did the Secret Service not then commence the violent clearance within several minutes? With tear gas — which Barr lied about. Was the rector of St. John’s not forcibly removed (was the rector lying?) so Donald the Great could do his inane poses with the book he claims to read more than anyone else? Will that preposterous claim be “validated” someday?

    I might take notice when he is “validated” on his many statements to the effect that Xi Jinping was handling Covid very well; that Covid cases would quickly drop from 15 to zero; that it would just disappear “like a miracle”; that it would be pretty much over by Easter 2020; that injecting disinfectants or shining light inside the body was a promising therapeutic idea; etc.

    And when can we expect to see the vindicating evidence that Trump “won by a landslide”? And that he didn’t actually call Brad Raffensperger an “enemy of the people”; and he didn’t tell his fanatical followers to “fight like hell,” and he didn’t really mean to praise them after they did when he told them “We love you. You’re very special” but was actually deeply disturbed by what they had done in his name?

    It’s a very tall order to “validate” Trump on his many patent absurdities and self-contradictions, as well as his morally repugnant statements and actions, but clearly some people are fully dedicated to the weird proposition that Trump is always right and his critics are always wrong and evil.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  13. Presidnet Plagiarist does brief NATO presser. Apologizes to young press corps for “late hour” start [to him]- 8:30 PM local warm milk time. After Squinty McStumblebum failed to bow to Queen Elizabeth II [even the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, did that representing America with class and respect you brain-damaged Irish-Catholic imbecile], he declares Trump ‘wing’ of GOP is a minority, populism as “phony” and vows to tell Putin where the ‘red lines’ are [sound “Obama ‘red line’ familiar??”] Declares again, ‘America is back.’ Did we go some place or are we ‘back’ to being played for $ucker$ by deadbeat NATO members?

    To POTUS, 74 million-plus million Americans voters are a ‘minority’ and ‘phony populists,’ too.

    OMG. Where have you been for 30 years, Giuseppe? Do not do lunch with Vlad; he’ll eat it.

    Weep for America: he’s a frigging, senile, rattle-headed idiot.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  14. Radegunda (33a224) — 6/14/2021 @ 1:16 pm

    Did he not really go out for a ridiculous photo op shortly after Bill Barr asked the Park Police “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?” Did the Secret Service not then commence the violent clearance within several minutes? With tear gas — which Barr lied about. Was the rector of St. John’s not forcibly removed (was the rector lying?) so Donald the Great could do his inane poses with the book he claims to read more than anyone else? Will that preposterous claim be “validated” someday?

    The New York Post editorializes that it was sheer coincidence that Trump went through the park after it was cleared but it was not a coincidence. He decided to do so after his advisers heard they were going to be clearing the park. Only it didn’t happen by the time they expected it.

    Trump went out because he was being criticized as hiding in a bunker. This annoyed Trump no end because it wasn’t true.

    Barr didn’t order it – he had no authority over the Park Police or the Secret Service – but the plan for Trump to go there may have influenced what was done or the the timing and the manner.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  15. Biden has been saying America is back for some time.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  16. Radegunda

    but clearly some people are fully dedicated to the weird proposition that Trump is always right and his critics are always wrong and evil.

    That doesn’t work although the opposite idea – that his critics are always right, especially with the most circulated criticisms – is not true. Many are wrong, at least in degree.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  17. Well you can double check my math on this but my understanding is that 74 million is a minority of the U.S. population.

    Victor (9ebafe)

  18. ‘Lost at G-7: Joe Biden wanders into the wrong cafeteria at the G-7 until Jill finally finds him and leads him away.’

    O.M.G.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  19. @17. Yes, do double check your umbers, against registered voters not the whole population.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  20. The man who frequently rails against “royalists” faults Biden for not bowing to the queen. Sweet irony!

    norcal (c66c6b)

  21. Biden straight out asked if Putin is a killer and he stumbles and offers flowery praise.

    So much for standing firm.

    NJRob (d19d35)

  22. “We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

    nk (1d9030)

  23. @20. It’s a courtesy. And protocol. Not Geritol.

    Especially if Her Masjesty, one of the wealthiest people om Earth BTW, reminds him ‘of is mother.’ When you visit a neighbor’s house, you follow their house rules.

    The idiot is a public servant and represents the United States, not the Irish nor the Catholics… nor the personal sentiments of his dead mother– who he’d clearly bow to:

    “When Joe Biden was preparing for his first audience with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as a young senator, his mother — an Irish American born with the surname Finnegan — had a piece of advice. “Don’t you bow down to her,” she told him in 1982.” – source, CNN.com

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  24. @21. It was asked past his bed time.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  25. The best thing about Biden is how angry he makes DCSCA. Glorious!

    Patterico (e349ce)

  26. @25.LOL

    President Kamala Harris…

    Patterico:

    ‘Be Prepared’ – Tom Lehrer

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTRHv1I0xig

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  27. You all know we are talking about people who demand we give Trump the credit for bringing out the Covid vaccine at “Warp Speed” and at the same time call it the “Yellow Star” of Nazi Germany, right?

    nk (1d9030)

  28. It appears there are factions within the Trump camp, nk. Perhaps Dear Leader would care to weigh in on this?

    norcal (c66c6b)

  29. @22 On point roasting

    norcal (c66c6b)

  30. What can I say, norcal? If they like him so much, why didn’t they make him President again, you know?

    nk (1d9030)

  31. Not bowing? I wonder what DCSCA thought about Obama bowing to ( fill in the blank). Bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia? The Emperor of Japan? Chris Christie?

    All of which were criticized by Republicans: “There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone. Our friends and allies don’t expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness.” said former Vice President Dick Cheney.

    At least he didn’t walk ahead of the Queen.

    Rip Murdock (2975ef)

  32. He’ll ignore your point, and say something about Darth Vader.

    norcal (c66c6b)

  33. Norcal,

    Whom are you referencing?

    I specifically referred to Biden acting like a coward when someone point blank asked him if Putin was a killer. That only matters because some on here offered praise to Biden in contrast to Trump because he called Putin one in the past. It seems that Biden is a pansy like Trump in offering effusive praise to a thug and murderer.

    But it’s also just one more example to show how hollow those who claimed to support Biden due to his superior character and his ability to say the truth to foreign powers really are. They just hated Trump more.

    They still could admit the truth. Biden is worse for America.

    NJRob (87ab14)

  34. @32. Point? The point is, a matter of diplomatic courtesy, norcal. The ‘Special Relationship’-wot? Especially when you’re invited into another’s castle who, according to ol’Squinty himself, ‘reminds me of my mother.’

    Same reason we don’t piss on Beau’s grave. Or Reagan’s. Courtesy.

    Jury’s still out on Nixon’s.

    Oh. BTW, ‘Darth Vader.’ Thought I’d mention him. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  35. “There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone. Our friends and allies don’t expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness.” said former Vice President Dick Cheney.

    Except there is.

    Courtesy.

    “So?” – Dick Cheney

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  36. 20. Never forget, NorCal: in this day and age, there are but three nations [well, 2 1/2 anyway] the U.S. can truly depend on as allies: the UK, Australia and Canada. See if you can figure out why.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  37. NJRob,

    My bad. I somehow had the impression that you were defending Trump and denigrating Biden. I agree with you that both of them failed to properly deal with Putin, although I would posit that Trump saying that America kills people too (in an attempt to minimize Putin’s evil) was worse.

    norcal (c66c6b)

  38. Biden did call Putin a killer last March, and I didn’t see him take it back or put an expiration date on his comment.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  39. “Things were better under The Empire.” — Werner Herzog, The Mandalorian

    nk (1d9030)

  40. Trump, a British subject through his mother should the UK decide to enforce it*, is obliged to bend a knee to the Queen. Thanks to George Washington (and maybe Michael Collins), Joe Biden is not.

    *There is no unilateral right to renounce allegiance. It’s only by permission of the sovereign. You there, Ted?

    nk (1d9030)

  41. Meantime, back at the chicken coop, Fox News forms a menage a trois with both Trump’s and Putin’s legs, quoting Putin’s laudatory words for Trump and disparaging ones for Biden:

    Which what Putin had to say about Biden gave me a chuckle:

    Biden, meanwhile, “is radically different from Trump because President Biden is a career man. He has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics,” Putin said.

    Comrade Vladimir Vladimirovich is maybe think we forget that he is career KGB apparatchik who spend whole life in politics?

    nk (1d9030)

  42. 38. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 6/15/2021 @ 2:43 am

    Biden did call Putin a killer last March, and I didn’t see him take it back or put an expiration date on his comment.

    He didn;t repeat it, but, by deduction, he re-affirmed it:

    https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/joe-biden-press-conference-transcript-at-nato-headquarters-june-14

    Jeff Zeleny: (17:29)

    Sir, good evening. Thank you. In a weekend interview, Vladimir Putin laughed at the suggestion that you had called him a killer. Is that still your belief, sir, that he is a killer? And I’ll continue the trend if you don’t mind of asking a second question, do you believe if he does agree to cooperate, then what kind of a challenge do you find yourself in? How would you ever trust him? And if Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” What do you say to Vladimir Putin?

    President Joe Biden: (18:00)

    Can I answer the first question? I’m laughing too. Well look, I mean, he has made clear that… The answer is, I believe he is in the past essentially acknowledged that there are certain things that he would do or did do. But look, when I was asked that question on air I answered it honestly, but it’s not much of a… I don’t think it matters a whole lot in terms of this next meeting we’re about to have….

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  43. WRT Chip Roy, he is just one example of a GOP politician who thought that Trump had self-destructed Jan 6th, and tried to get on “the right side of history” but reconsidered when his phone started ringing and his frequent supporters told him to get his mind right.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  44. Well, i have rechecked my numbers and it turns out that 74 million is also a minority of voters. Thank goodness.

    Victor (9ebafe)

  45. Visit for a different slant on things… stay for the amusingly pinched, constipated comments…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  46. 38.Biden did call Putin a killer last March, and I didn’t see him take it back or put an expiration date on his comment.

    Now that’s he’s really gotta take him ‘behind the HS gym,’ ol’ boasting Squinty has merely watered it down, eh– like going from a brother’s sixpack of Colt 45 to a case of warm Budweiser 3.2 beer.

    … a “smart” and “worthy adversary.”

    Vlad, a martial arts champion BTW, is gonna take that mouthy old Mick by the ears, box’em– and sent him back to Scranton. Or is it Wilmington this week.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  47. Well, i have rechecked my numbers and it turns out that 74 million WAS also a minority of voters.

    FIFY. It was 5 million more than any other presidential candidate has ever gotten, and is more than the winner will get next time. The GotV effort in 2020 was government subsidized to an enormous extent due to Covid. Hopefully, that won’t repeat.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  48. It could be argued that Trump threw the election. He dissuaded his supporters from voting early, giving Biden 30 days of polling to his 1. He showed up in full-assh0le mode at the first debate, making anyone on the fence fall to Biden. He told his supporters that he’d be cheated, so what’s the point.

    And then he continued to throw the Senate elections in GA.

    As the bear said, “You’re not here to hunt, are you?”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)


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