Letter to the Editor - Daines lied under oath

To the Editor:

Steve Daines lied when he recently swore an oath for the impeachment trial of Donald Trump to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” We all know this because Daines has called Trump’s impeachment a “sham,”  elsewhere a “hoax,” and he has insisted, despite all the evidence of wrongdoing, that he is “standing with Trump.”

Daines doesn’t even have the decency to pretend that he is going to uphold his oath to be impartial. He doesn’t care what the evidence is for Trump’s abuse of power or obstruction of Congress, and he appears to be ready to elevate Trump above the law, eager to make him into a dictator.

Let’s not pretend otherwise. Unless the Senate checks Trump’s abuse of power, that is exactly what Trump will become, a dictator, like Putin. This is how democracy dies.

We all know, Republicans just as much as Democrats, that Daines lied when he swore to be impartial. What terrifies me is how little Republicans care. It’s as if lying under oath, the crime that Bill Clinton was impeached for, is now nothing, nothing at all.

In any ordinary trial, any judge would throw Daines off the jury for what he has said. Daines should immediately recuse himself. If Daines nevertheless persists, he should be charged with perjury. He has lied under oath and that, as Republicans pointed out to Bill Clinton, is no small matter.

Wade Sikorski

Baker