'Unfit to serve': Columnist makes case for expelling all pro-Trump coup members from Congress

Writing for USA Today, Jill Lawrence argued that congressional Trump supporters who planned to stop the certification of the 2020 election deserve to be expelled from Congress.

Writing Monday, Lawrence recalled the recent revelation that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was among those who text messaged White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 5 on ways to overthrow the 2020 election.

A legal analysis forwarded by Jordan to Meadows argued that then-Vice President Pence should "call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all." Meanwhile, after Jan. 6, another lawmaker sent an apologetic text saying that they were "sorry nothing worked," as they attempted to stop the 2020 election results from being certified.

Meanwhile, at the Ellipse, Trump's allies were telling supporters to "fight like hell" because "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

There were 21 Republican state lawmakers who participated in Jan. 6 events, according to a DLCC report. Among those 21 lawmakers, only one has been censured by his home state and that was only after he was arrested after live-streaming himself breaking into the Capitol.

Lawrence noted that it's a stark contrast to members of the U.S. government who were expelled after betraying the United States after its founding.

"Fifteen senators have been expelled, one in 1797 for plotting to give U.S. territories to Great Britain and, more than 60 years later, 14 because of 'support for Confederate rebellion.' The House has only expelled five members – two for corruption and three for 'disloyalty to the Union; fighting for the Confederacy,'" she wrote.

"Support for a rebellion and disloyalty to the nation were hallmarks of the Jan. 6 insurrection," Lawrence continued. "As U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss put it in July when he sentenced defendant Paul Hodgkins, a Tampa, Florida crane operator who carried a Trump flag into the building: 'He was staking a claim on the floor of the United States Senate, not with the American flag, but with a flag declaring his loyalty to a single individual over a nation.'"

It is similar language that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) used when talking about whether Donald Trump "through action or inaction, corruptly sought to obstruct or impede Congress's official proceeding to count electoral votes."

Lawrence closed by arguing that all of those in control -- from President Joe Biden to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Attorney General Merrick Garland -- "must make examples of public officials who created chaos and brought America to the brink, all so Trump could stay president for life, or until he got bored. They aren't fit to lead or serve in any capacity."

Read the full column at USA Today.