Enabling a Coup d'état
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R. Oregon) began a Town Meeting by saying he supported the 2nd Amendment and Donald Trump.
By random good luck, my ticket number was called and I got to ask a question.
I asked:
You say you support Donald Trump. He actively tried to get governors, election officials, legislatures in Michigan and Wisconsin, and the Vice President to reverse the election results. What does a person have to do to subvert the Constitution and try to overthrow the government to stay in power more than what President Trump did, before you will say 'we can do better than Donald Trump'?
The question got applause from part of the audience; restless boos from others.
U.S. Rep Bentz responded:
As I indicated, uh, the, uh, President Trump's approach to, uh, [interruptions from the crowd shouting "Former! Former president] to approach to things, uh, when it comes to, uh, things is, uh, when it comes to things we talk about, uh, is not necessarily the way I do it. I think he's--his policies are excellent, uh, I'll mention a few. Operation Warp Speed, and regulations [inaudible because of applause] try to make the ESA [Endangered Species Act] work better, try to protect water for farmers, try to stop the tsunami of immigration coming across our border right now, [inaudible because of applause] lower the cost of energy. He lowered taxes. He attracted hundreds of billions of dollars with his tax policies, people forget about all the big corporations that were sheltering all of their money offshore and under the new tax plan, uh, that money comes back here, drove down unemployment for the minorities to the lowest in 50 years, and tried to move jobs to the United States.
Now, is his approach on--uh--how he talks about elections--my own approach? Let me, uh, let me
[shout from the audience: "Is that a hard question?"]
[Inaudible for a few seconds] . . .on January 6, I was actually in my office in, uh, Washington D.C. we were asked to stay there because Nancy Pelosi didn't want people on the floor given the COVID situation, an argument or something going on, so I was on the floor when folks broke into the Capitol, and uh, we watched as that was going on, and, uh, it was one of the saddest things I've seen, and so, after that happened, we went on the floor and we voted on the various states, and we voted on the various states, uh, the way Vice President Pence [inaudible] in order. That's what our Constitution says we do, yeah, we go through that certification process, and we have each state come in and say how it voted. We [inaudible] the people. Our job is basically to listen, and because states are supposed to take care of that [inaudible] by voting. Now the one exception to that, at least in my mind. If those states violate the Constitution, then we have a problem. That's why I voted against Pennsylvania. I voted for certification of Arizona. Why? I didn't see they having violated the Constitution.
Now, I'm calling out what I do, and so what I would suggest right now is that everybody that is talking about January 6 and President Trump is probably more excited about talking about him than they are in talking about President Biden [inaudible]
[call from audience: "Would you say "ex-President Trump]
so it's not to ignore what's going on. I can't think of anything more important right now than convincing people that they should vote, I want them to understand that their vote will be counted. Correctly. How do we get back to that? Because there are a lot of people who don't believe in our systems now.
There's another opportunity in this county just a couple of weeks ago, I'm talking to Charlie about this, he's in charge of taking care of this space, and his idea was, we can have people go in and watch as votes are tabulated, but how do we convince anybody to believe it? So I would challenge everybody here, to your question, how are we going to convince people that our system works?
I returned to the microphone:
The, the one thing we might do is agree that there are some things, like trying to overthrow the government, that is actually, that's too much. [crowd noise, applause]. 'Other than that one little incident, Mrs. Lincoln, how do you feel about the play?' President Trump--I totally get it that you agree with lots of things that President Trump did-- but at some point trying to overthrow the government is too much.
[Crowd noise. Applause. Restless noise. A shout: "Sit down." Scattered voices of disapproval. Some applause.]
A staff person takes charge by stepping to the microphone and firmly calling out "8553," the next number to be drawn at random allowing someone else to ask a question. They were done with me.
Trump enabler. Bentz defines Trump's attempt to overturn the election as unfortunate, but not dispositive. He avoids direct acknowledgment of what Trump did and is continuing to do, and promptly changes the subject to the many things he likes about Trump. That play Mrs. Lincoln saw---Our American Cousin--was excellent, a lighthearted satire. It made a fine evening.