COLUMBUS – He served as honorary co-chair of his reelection campaign in Ohio, but Gov. Mike DeWine now says President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept election results has created a situation that threatens democracy.
“President Trump’s continued refusal to accept the election results without producing credible evidence of a rigged election has started a fire that has threatened to burn down our democracy,” DeWine said at the outset of his regular briefing on the coronavirus pandemic.
DeWine said he still supports Trump policies in areas like trade and his choices for judges and Supreme Court justices but said the president “poured gas on the fire” with his speech to protesters before the riot.
DeWine said Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters was shameful and should be denounced by all Americans.
A police officer has died from injuries sustained in the riot, the fifth person to die in the melee.
There was growing discussion Thursday of impeaching Trump a second time or invoking the 25th Amendment to oust him from the Oval Office.
DeWine was not ready to join Democrats, including Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, in the call for taking that step, saying it would create “more division than healing.”
“I think that would stoke the fires of people who think there is a conspiracy and I think it would lessen faith in our system,” he said.
Ratified in 1967, the amendment allows the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members “or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” to to declare that a president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the office, handing the reins of government to the vice president.
“We must hold the president accountable for inciting this attack on our country.” Brown said in a statement calling on Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Cabinet to invoke the amendment.
“For the last four years, Trump has used the office of the presidency to divide us, spread lies and far-flung conspiracies, give credence to the darkest corners of the Internet, and feed his ego. What we witnessed [Wednesday] was unbelievable, un-American, and a manifestation of all that is wretched about Donald Trump,” said Beatty, the Columbus lawmaker who is also head of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Beatty also criticized authorities for failing to prepare adequately for the attack and reacting to the violence in a different manner than police reacted to Black Lives Matter demonstrations during the summer.
-0-
Some of the same social media posts Capitol protesters used to brag about their insurrection this week are now being used to arrest the culprits and the United States Attorneys in Ohio are vowing to prosecute anyone who has violated federal law.
Authorities have been able to track down, or issue warrants for, some of those who participated in Wednesday’s deadly riot by matching social media posts with news photos and footage of the protest or used cellphone information and surveillance video from Washington area hotels to identify guests who stormed the Capitol.
David DeVillers, whose office is in Columbus, and Justin Herdman, attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, tweeted their intent to prosecute anyone from the state who committed a crime, Herdman adding the message, “Coffee is brewing…”
Among the offenses Devillers says violators could be prosecuted for are committing rebellion or insurrection, which means anyone who “incites, assists or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the United States faces up to 10 years in prison.”
Other crimes include committing civil disorder, which prohibits “adversely affecting any federally protected function or obstructing any law enforcement officer from the performance of official duties;” violating the Federal Riot Act, which applies to anyone who traveled interstate to incite, promote, or participate in a riot or commit a violent crime during a riot.
Those two crimes are punishable by up to five years in prison, DeVillers said.