Dear Representative Jim Jordan,

Normally, when I write representatives, I take time to introduce myself. But this letter is too urgent for introductions, so I’ll get straight to the point so as to not take up too much of your time. 

You said on the floor in the House Impeachment proceeding (starting at 3:40:30 in the YouTube video below) that impeaching President Trump does not help unify the country. Then you referred to the violence that’s been committed throughout 2020, with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and then the Capitol siege on January 6th, 2021. And then you go into mentioning all the great things you think the President has done, such as lower taxes, lower the unemployment rate, delivering the COVID-19 vaccines, and so on. 

Impeaching President Trump is about justice and law, not unity

First, impeaching President Trump isn’t about unity. It’s about President Trump having to account for his actions. Whenever a criminal is prosecuted for his crime, the jury isn’t going against their mission to give the killer life in prison without parole, or to give the criminal the death penalty. Rather, the individual, if he or she has committed murder, is receiving a fair sentence. President Donald Trump approved of the death penalty for young men who murdered a Christian missionary couple in Texas nearly 20 years ago. The couple offered the young men a ride home, and that’s when the men held the couple hostage and placed them both in the car trunk. The husband was shot in the head while locked in the trunk. The leader of the gang shot the husband in the head, but he told one of his fellow gang members to set the trunk on fire to dissolve the evidence. 

 I read about that murder case and how some think the death penalty is too harsh for the young man who didn’t shoot but merely set the trunk on fire. Some said in the case that the wife was already dead, so the young man who “merely” set the trunk on fire didn’t deserve the death penalty. I believe that the individuals did what they did and that, regardless of the age, the deliberate, heinous actions they committed are what condemn them and make them deserving of the death penalty. And I applaud President Trump for sending a swift message that murdering innocent life is a crime and it merits the loss of life of the individual who knew what he was doing. I’m surrounded by many who may disagree with my assessment, but I applaud the decision to deliver the death penalty by lethal injection. 

In a similar way, President Donald Trump has committed crimes for which he is guilty. His impeachment, then, isn’t to unify the country, but rather, to punish him for his crimes. And he has committed crime; that’s not in dispute. And the same President that has approved of the death penalty and has completed death sentences for guilty criminals isn’t himself above the law. He too, must answer to the same law. If he murders someone, he, like those criminals, deserves the death penalty. If he steals like thieves steal, he deserves to do jail time. And if he is guilty of crimes, he should suffer a just penalty or punishment for those crimes. If he is indeed guilty of inciting the Capitol mob, then he should be punished for it. 

There’s little time to speak of unity when punishments are being given for crimes committed. Crimes deserve punishment, a penalty, and those who fail to deliver them when they are warranted are unjust. So if President Trump has committed crimes worthy of impeachment and conviction, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party would be unjust to not give President Trump the penalty fitting for his crime(s). Surely you can understand then, why impeachment is not about unity but about doling out justice. There can be no justice if the law is not upheld. The law itself demands justice. When the law is broken and justice is not upheld, it sends a powerful yet tragic message that law doesn’t matter and that lawlessness is okay. Lawlessness is never okay. 

What about Black Lives Matter and its violent protests?

You’ve pointed out the violence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Any violence committed where property is destroyed and lives are hurt or harmed in any way is not okay. It’s not alright, and those who commit violent acts should be punished. On this, I agree with you. But, even if we assume BLM is guilty of violent protests (I’m hypothetically assuming this), what does that have to do with President Trump’s impeachment? Nothing. President Trump is not guilty of the violence committed behind the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others. BLM didn’t storm the Capitol on January 6th and vandalize “The People’s House.” 

So BLM’s violence acts with its protests, if they were guilty of them, doesn’t excuse Donald Trump from inciting the Capitol mob. These are two different events. I’m sure you wanted to make a point about the violence in general, but again, these are two different events that can’t be grouped together. BLM didn’t give a speech and incite people to destroy property and interrupt Congress in its work. Trump told the mob to march down to the Capitol. He told them where to go, knowing that Congress was counting the Electoral College votes to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win and election. BLM didn’t direct violent protesters to do what they did. So Trump’s speech could possibly be guilty of causing and motivating the mob to vandalize the Capitol. 

The “Double Standard” and the Democrats

You point to the “double standard” of the Democrats and said in your House Impeachment speech that the Democrats are able to get away with things Republicans are not. But don’t you see the problem with your claim? The President can commit illegal crimes and he gets an impeachment trial. And even if he’s impeached (which Donald Trump has now been impeached twice), he can leave office and still receive the perks of the presidency — even in retirement. If Donald Trump were an average American citizen committing the same crime, he’d be locked up with no benefits, even if he had been the President of a college or corporation. If BLM had urged people to “march down to the Confederate statues and let your voices be heard,” they would’ve been either shot to death, assaulted, locked up, or all three (not even in that order). The President gets to have a trial where Congress votes on his innocence. The average criminal gets a small jury of perhaps less than a dozen people to decide his or her innocence. The President gets over 400 people to decide his innocence or guilt. Even being impeached now, he can still be acquitted and not convicted if Republicans decide to not convict him because they fear the consequences of turning against the President. 

Their whimsical choice (if they base it on how angry he’ll be with them) can allow a guilty President to go free. And then you can look at Democrats and claim they have a double standard? The double standard in this whole situation is looking at President Trump being treated like royalty when he’s committed election crimes. He IS the very election fraud of which he’s said the Democrats are guilty. If there is election fraud, it’s come from the Commander-In-Chief. Crime is sad when citizens commit it, but it’s even sadder when the very President himself is guilty of it. 

There’s a double standard when it comes to the President, and the Republican Party has set it. Donald Trump gets away with things that average citizens cannot. If an average citizen had gone and tried to ask state officials to “find me 11,780 votes,” he would be found guilty and face jail time. For Trump’s conversation with Georgia State Secretary Brad Raffensperger, he should be impeached and arrested…nevermind the Capitol siege. He tried to overturn the election results, and someone recorded it so all American citizens have either heard it already or can hear it if they like. And Trump is guilty. 

And if he’s guilty of trying to undermine America’s fair and free election, he’s a terrorist, a domestic terrorist. He’s guilty of illegal acts, crimes against America. And if he can try to illegally win an election he didn’t win honestly, is it far-fetched to think that he really is guilty of trying to force Ukraine’s hand to spy on his competitor, Joe Biden, by denying Ukraine Congress-approved funds? And then Trump said at the time, “There is no evidence of collusion.” But absence of evidence, as every lawyer will tell you, isn’t necessarily evidence of absence. In other words, because one can’t find the evidence doesn’t mean the evidence isn’t there. It just means that, fortunately for the guilty, the evidence has been kept out of plain sight. 

Opinions, Debates, Freedom of Speech, and “Cancel Culture”

You’ve said that Democrats are trying to cancel the President, that they’re guilty of creating “cancel culture” where only one side gets an opinion. 

I’d agree with you if I believed that’s what the Democrats are doing. 

I don’t. 

There’s a difference in opinion with every human being. We all have different opinions. However, there’s a difference between opinions and reality. For example, you could say, “I wish President Donald Trump had won re-election.” That’s an opinion. What the President kept saying for weeks, however, is not “I wish I had won re-election,” but rather, “I did win the election, and the Democrats are saying I didn’t because they’ve stolen the election and handed it to Joe Biden.” But he didn’t win the election. He lost. And he lost in what has been called “the most secure election in American history” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/us/election-officials-flatly-declare-that-the-election-was-the-most-secure-in-american-history.html). Reality check says that Trump lost and Biden won. That’s it. So Trump has perpetuated a lie for weeks on end that he won the election and that it was stolen from him. It wasn’t stolen. Over 155 million people voted, and over 81 million voted for President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. And that’s all. 

The opinion that “I wish Trump had won re-election” is not getting cancelled. What’s getting cancelled is the lie from Trump that he won the 2020 presidential election. It is his lies that are getting cancelled. Twitter has suspended Trump now indefinitely, but he has lied for weeks on that platform, with Twitter having to flag every tweet he’s made since the November election results declared Biden the President-Elect. 

All Trump’s achievements

You point to all Trump’s grand achievements, but those achievements have no bearing on Trump’s guilt with regard to the American presidential election. Take a judge in the community. He or she may have presided as judge over lots of criminal cases. The judge may have put lots of murderers behind bars and gotten a lot of dangerous criminals off the streets, but does that excuse the judge from suffering for his or her crimes if he or she is guilty of having done them? Not at all. The judge’s achievements don’t give him or her a “pass” before the law to be exempt from consequences of lawbreaking. 

The same is true for President Trump. Whatever you may think his achievements are, that doesn’t excuse him from being punished if he committed the crime of which he is facing trial in the Senate. If good achievements helped us all escape consequences of wrongdoing, there are a number of criminals who wouldn’t have a criminal record, cheaters on school exams that wouldn’t have bad grades or be forced to repeat the same grade for a second year, bankers who wouldn’t have been fired from the bank for stealing money, and so on. The law is the law, and no one, not even the most respectable, kind, and decent individual, is above the law. And, this may be a reality check, but so be it: not even President Trump is above the law. Jesus submitted to the law; President Donald John Trump doesn’t even come close to Jesus. 

Focus on what the people want us to focus on

Finally, you said that you want us to start focusing on what the people want Congress to focus on. Trust me when I say as an American citizen that we are interested in these impeachment proceedings. There are a large number of American citizens that want to see Trump impeached and convicted of his crimes. A large number. I’ve talked to some. Regardless of what county or state they live in, whether their state voted red or blue in the November election, there are many who are glad to see Trump face charges for his crimes. There are many red-voting Christians who are outraged at the Capitol siege they saw on January 6th and think the President shouldn’t be excused…even as they voted for him. 

So the impeachment trial and proceedings ARE what the people want you to focus on. Many believe President Trump has committed illegal acts and thus, should be brought to justice. There are red-voting Christians I know that are actually grateful to Nancy Pelosi for pushing forward with impeachment. So don’t assume that every Republican thinks impeachment is just a “witch hunt.” 

Whether the President is convicted or not is up to the Senate now, but I wanted to write you and perhaps provide a different perspective from where I sit. I pray that you and the Republicans search your hearts and minds, that Republican senators approach this with the utmost care in determining President Trump’s guilt or innocence. If this were a Democrat up for conviction, and the Democrat had tried to find illegal votes to overturn a national election, what would you do? If the Democratic President had fired up a crowd and then they went and seized the Capitol, putting lives and property at risk, what would you do?