Angus King Stuns Ari Melber With Bleak Impeachment Take: ‘Step Toward Authoritarianism… Elected Monarch’

Senator Angus King (I- ME) stunned MSNBC’s Ari Melber with his bleak assessment of the state of the country with acquittal expected in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

He told Melber he’s concerned about the precedent that will be set:

“Democracy is unusual in world history. The norm is some kind of authoritarianism, dictators, kings, princes, emperors, you name it. And we are a 200-plus year experiment, and I think what’s going on right now is a step toward authoritarianism. It is allowing an elected monarch, and that’s really what the framers were worried about. That’s why they put the impeachment clause in. There were people who said you don’t need it because you have elections. But they said, no, you have to have some kind of a check on somebody and particularly what makes it even more powerful in this case is the offense we’re talking about involves meddling with the election. If the election is the cure, but we can’t trust that the incumbent won’t, you know, finagle the election, it’s not the cure.”

Melber responded, “You are known more for your moderation and your caution than I think for your rhetoric, so to hear you say as this closing argument is completed on this day that you are concerned that the actions in the Senate — that the clearing, sort of acquitting of what I’ve quoted Lamar Alexander called the Democrats having proved their case, that the president was shaking down a foreign country, extorting help with his re-election — you’re saying you believe that puts the United States on a path to being at risk of being an authoritarian country? Tell us more about that, because I haven’t heard you speak like that before.”

he invoked the second article of impeachment and asked how a president can be held accountable when they’re stonewalling and not cooperating with requests for documents.

You can watch above, via MSNBC.