Scott Powers
Republican Rep. Greg Steube cited a case involving a KKK leader in his impeachment defense of President Donald Trump, contending Trump said nothing that qualifies as inciting violence under law established by that case.
Speaking Wednesday during debate for a second Trump impeachment, Steube insisted the President never said anything to incite or provoke people to violence, and so was not legally responsible when a mob left his speech, went to the U.S. Capitol, seized and sacked it, and killed a police officer.
“The legal elements of incitement are based on the Supreme Court case of Brandenburg v. Ohio,” Steube said, referring to the 1969 case involving an Ohio Ku Klux Klan leader charged with inciting violence. “Brandenburg called for violence against Americans. And the Supreme Court said … that was protected speech. And he was calling for violence! That’s the current law of the land.”
Steube contended there was no language in Trump’s Jan. 6 speech to the group that attacked the Capitol that provoked violence.
“In fact, around the 18-minute mark he stated, and quote, ‘Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,'” he said. “You may think that he is inciting violence because he thinks there was election fraud. That’s his opinion. And he’s entitled to that opinion, just as all of you were entitled to your false and fraudulent opinion that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
“There was no crime committed and therefore no basis for impeachment,” Steube said of Trump’s speech.
Nonetheless, Steube also contended Democrats and the media have “lied to the American people” for years, so Democrats should consider resigning for “lying to the American people repeatedly, and sowing division.”
“You have created a mockery out of the impeachment process,” he concluded. “Stand against it and fight the latest fraud perpetrated against the American people by the radical left.”
9 comments
Kathy
January 13, 2021 at 3:54 pm
Only a fool defends an idiot. Pathetic losers.
Sonja Fitch
January 13, 2021 at 5:03 pm
Steube you are brainwashed and braindead! Where were you last Wednesday! 6 people are dead! You Steube are compromised and unable to accept the truth! Get out!
Palmer Tom
January 13, 2021 at 5:07 pm
This was not a criminal trial. The standards are different in civil actions. Don’t be confused.
Robert Rivas
January 14, 2021 at 8:13 am
Is Palmer Tom saying Brandenberg v. Ohio was not a criminal trial? If so, he is mistaken. It was an appeal from a criminal trial. The first sentences say, “The appellant, a leader of a Ku Klux Klan group, was convicted under the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism statute for ‘advocat(ing) * * * the duty, necessity, or propriety of crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform’ and for ‘voluntarily assembl(ing) with any society, group, or assemblage of persons formed to teach or advocate the doctrines of criminal syndicalism.’ Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2923.13. He was fined $1,000 and sentenced to one to 10 years’ imprisonment.” Brandenberg establishes the line a state law may not cross when the state seeks to prosecute a citizen for using speech to incite violence.
Gordon
January 14, 2021 at 8:46 am
Pretty sure the KKK never took an oath to defend the constitution. Just sayin.
Robert Rivas
January 14, 2021 at 8:57 am
Steube’s argument about the Brandenberg case is intellectually dishonest. Trump went to the crowd as it prepared to march on the Capitol and spoke words that were intended to, and did, incite the mob to take over the Capitol in a plan to use violence to change the outcome of the electoral college certification. He said:
“We are going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country. Because you’re sworn to uphold our Constitution.” Calling the outcome of the election “this egregious assault on our democracy,” he said his supporters should “walk down to the Capitol.”
“So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue . . . and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… . . . we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Melanie
January 16, 2021 at 11:30 pm
Okay, perhaps you should look up the word fight and put it into a politcial context that the speech clearly is referencing. “we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” So, where does that even suggest storming the capitol. Anyone in their right mind can see this was political boldness. Even Trump has not suggested that overthrowing the Congress by force was the answer. Not sure how anyone could interpret that line in that particular fashion unless they wanted to. And how, exactly, would terrorizing the Congress by violently entering give the “weak ones” boldness. It doesn’t even make sense. And, btw, I think Trump is egotistical and a poor speaker. OTOH, I think Brandenberg exactly applies here from what I’ve read. The fact that it involved a KKK leader is irrelevant if it is the case that set precedents for interpreting the law. Someone with the ANTIFA movement could use the same criteria because it set case precedence. Citing KKK as a key factor in Trump’s argument really is just trying to get an emotional response rather than being a serious discussion of the issues involved.
John McMahon
January 17, 2021 at 12:37 am
Robert Rivas nice intro however, are you ever going to finish your post with a statement of fact proving intent? Is that all you have to prove your pathetic case that President Trump incited an attack on the U.S.Capitol by incendiary rhetoric? I think you just HATE Trump and wanted him impeached the first time also right player? So we are all waiting breathless for you and your disingenuous fellow Democrat party Marxist America haters , to show us the transcript that PROVE your case. Let’s all hear it Mr. Revis, that President Trump deliberately was recorded calling for violence against the U.S.Capitol. So you don’t have evidence of a recording of a “call to arms” ? No ? So I guess that leaves us with the fact that you are just a foolish political hack. Lmao! Get ready for 2024 snowflake!
Bill Lundahl
January 18, 2021 at 5:01 pm
Stupid is bought and paid for by the NRA. He does not represent the people only those who pay him to say what they want.
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