The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board, lambasted their state’s two Republican senators on Thursday, accusing them of “deepening Missouri’s embarrassment” by turning a blind eye to Donald Trump’s guilt and called their conduct during the Senate impeachment trial “embarrassing.”
The paper’s editorial board said the impeachment trial is the perfect opportunity for both senators to “redeem themselves for blindly supporting a man whose conduct was indefensible.”
But instead, both Hawley and Blunt voted to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional.
The paper’s editorial board said the people of Missouri should not allow themselves to be “fooled” by the senators “weak boilerplate” defenses.
Donald Trump was impeached by a bipartisan majority in the House for inciting an insurrection after he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
“Blunt had the gall to tell reporters that, until a 13-minute video of the Capitol attack was shown to senators on Tuesday, he had never taken so much time to watch what occurred on that “truly a horrendous day,” the editorial states.
They dismissed Hawley’s attempt to say this impeachment is just a partisan distraction while Biden “cancels” jobs, as “pathetic” and noted that a bipartisan majority said the trial is constitutional.
The editorial board also ridiculed Hawley for his “form-letter responses” to constituents who have written to him about the Capitol attack and impeachment.
The letter from Hawley reads: “It’s time we left this impeachment circus behind and looked to the future. It has diverted our attention from critical issues such as the crisis of suicide, rising health care and housing costs, and the lack of internet access in rural areas.”
“It’s just a matter of time before Hawley starts asserting that when he fist-pumped the mob as it swarmed the Capitol on Jan. 6, he was actually fist-pumping his attention to suicide, housing costs and rural internet access,” the editorial states.
Hawley avoided seeing the evidence in the impeachment trial by sitting in the visitors’ gallery with legs crossed and feet propped up on a chair, reviewing paperwork.
