Published January 15, 2021

MELROSE — Congresswoman Katherine Clark, the Prospect Street Democrat, doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to President Donald J. Trump and what happened in Washington last week.

“He is a traitor,” she said in the aftermath of the violent protest urged on by Trump on Wednesday, Jan. 6 as he continued to cling to the notion that somehow the November election had been stolen from him by Joseph R. Biden and the Democratic Party. Rioters ransacked the Capitol complex and five people, including a Capitol Police officer, were killed.

“We have a president who has turned on us. He is a traitor. He has incited violence and perpetuated a lie that he won this election,” Clark said. “If we do not hold this president accountable, if we do not remove him from office, we cannot underestimate the damage we will do to the American experience and experiment of democracy.”

A week after the rioting in Washington, the House of Representatives where Clark serves her constituents in the state’s Fifth Congresstional District was debating on Jan. 13 whether to impeach Trump for the second time. 

The debate is heated almost from the start as House sets up a vote to impeach President Donald Trump.

Democrats and a few Republicans say Trump must be removed immediately after he egged on a violent mob of supporters a week ago who then stormed the Capitol. The insurrection happened as some of Trump’s GOP allies were challenging his election defeat, echoing the president’s false claims that there was widespread fraud in his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Most Republicans are saying impeachment is divisive. They’re not mentioning the president.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio is one of Trump’s most vocal defenders. Jordan blames Democrats for objecting to previous election results and he’s repeating baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

But Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts says Democrats haven’t pushed conspiracy theories that a president won in a landslide when he actually lost — which is what happened to Trump.

McGovern is looking back at the deadly Capitol siege and saying “people died because of the big lies that were being told.” And he says that’s enough to merit impeachment.

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Mayor Paul Brodeur also commented on what happened in Washington on Jan. 6, the current state of our nation and its great political divide.

“Wednesday, January 6 should have been a good day for democracy — a critical run-off election was held in Georgia with huge turnout and without incident. The Massachusetts legislature were sworn for a new session. And in Washington, Congress was poised to ratify the most enduring part of our democratic experiment – the peaceful transfer of power. The storming of the Capitol – urged on by the president of the United States and abetted by elected officials who continued to insist on groundlessly challenging the results of a free and fair election – made January 6, 2021 a tragic day for American democracy.

“I have struggled to come to grips with what happened and what I should be saying as an elected official in response. I’ve been involved in campaigns and politics since I’ve been a kid, and I understand losing an election can be hard. The stakes always seem so high; you work so hard for your cause or candidate. You put your principles into action, and it can be devastating when things do not turn out your way. But the comfort we all could take is that despite a loss, our belief in democratic principles unites us and provides the opportunity to continue the debate. When you win, it should be with humility. When you lose, it should be with grace.

“In our community, we have seen our residents peacefully rally for racial justice; we have conducted controversial debates with dignity and respect; and we have had hard-fought elections and then come together to work for a better Melrose. At our best, we actively participate in our civic enterprise to do the hard work of self-government that is at the heart of the democratic experience.

“Paraphrasing my friend Mayor Tom Bernard, who so ably represents the people of North Adams, our democratic ideals are imperfectly and inequitably realized. We learned on January 6 how truly and desperately vulnerable we are to those who would cynically or violently manipulate our democratic system and seek to overturn a free, fair, secure, and certified election. We saw insurrectionists proudly displaying racist symbols in our Capitol. And we saw stark differences between how a violent mostly-white mob was treated at the Capitol compared to how Black protestors and their allies have been treated at demonstrations in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. I hope January 6 marks a turning point, where we step away from divisive rhetoric and conspiracy theories; where we cherish peaceful protest and reject violence and cynicism; and where we work toward a more perfect union.”