Democrats Need to Follow Lead of This 84-Year-Old Congressman and Call for Trump to Be Criminally Prosecuted
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If a Democratic president did exactly what Donald Trump did after losing re-election — from radicalizing his supporters with lies of “election fraud” to calling them to the Capitol on January 6 then urging them to “Stop the Steal” which led to an “act of domestic terrorism” as the FBI has classified Jan. 6 — is there any doubt that Republican members of Congress would be screaming daily for that former president to be criminally prosecuted?! We would hear daily chants by the GOP of “lock him up” on the floor of the House! And to be honest, they would be doing the right thing.
But when it comes to Trump, we see almost no Democratic member of Congress calling for him to be criminally investigated. That is except for a feisty, 84-year-old Italian-American member of Congress from my home state of New Jersey, Bill Pascrell. He not only has the courage to call for Trump to be prosecuted, but he’s now calling out fellow Democrats for lacking the “cogliones” (Italian slang for “balls”) to do the same — as he did earlier this week on my SiriusXM show.
Pascrell, who has served in Congress since 1996, has been calling for Trump to be prosecuted — and slamming the January 6 attackers as “terrorists” — for months. Maybe his brutal honesty is a Jersey thing, maybe it’s an Italian-American thing (I’m half Sicilian) but in any event we need more of it from other Democrats.
In fact, a November 17, 2020 tweet pinned to Pascrell’s Twitter account calls for Trump to be brought to justice: “Tonight I’m calling for the eventual prosecution of Donald Trump and his enablers for their many crimes against the United States.” Attached to that tweet is a statement from Pascrell which reads in part, “Donald Trump and members of his administration have committed innumerable crimes against the United States,” as it goes on to list criminal offenses Trump should be investigated for, from personally profiting from the presidency to Trump’s attacks on elections.
That was even before the January 6 riot. Since then, Pascrell has demanded Trump be prosecuted for possible crimes arising from that terrorist attack.
“Trump is trying again to gin up insurrection and get people killed,” he wrote in a September 16 tweet. “I’ve called for trump to be arrested and prosecuted for his Jan 6 treason. Nothing has changed.”
Pascrell tweets daily slamming Republicans in Congress who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the election along with correctly calling the attackers what they are: “266 days ago terrorists ransacked the US Capitol and *hours later* 138-of-202 (68%) House republicans voted to make trump a dictator. They tried to finish the rioters’ job and end democracy. Never forget it.” (The only change made to that daily tweet is updating how many days have passed since the January 6 attack.)
Pascrell is 100% right on all counts. Nearly 70 percent of Republicans in the House voted after the attack to contest the results. Those who attacked our Capitol are terrorists. That’s not hyperbolic. Earlier this week federal judge Emmet G. Sullivan, during a plea hearing for one of the attackers who said on January 6 she wanted to shoot Nancy Pelosi “in the friggin’ brain,” shared his amazement at how “good people who never got into trouble with the law … morphed into terrorists.” The reason that happened, of course, is Donald Trump radicalized his supporters with a daily diet of lies — and continues to do so.
When I asked Pascrell why more Democrats in Congress don’t join him in calling for Trump to be criminally prosecuted, he responded bluntly: “They are afraid…afraid to say it.”
“Let me tell you something, Democrats — as we as we say in the old country — have to have the coglionis, have to be able to stand up,” he said.
Pascrell, the former mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, which he still proudly calls home, continued: “No one is above the law, and this former president needs to be treated like a common criminal, as if he’s running down the street in my town with a television set strapped on his back which is obviously stolen.”
The statement pinned to Pascrell’s Twitter profile correctly warns us what happens if Trump is not prosecuted. It “further emboldens criminality by our national leaders and continues America down the path of lawlessness and authoritarianism.”
It’s time that Democratic members of Congress in one voice join Pascrell in demanding Trump be criminally prosecuted for his role in the January 6 attack. And to those Democrats who are hesitant to do so for fear of appearing political, remember: Calling for the criminal prosecution of a person who incited an act of terrorism on the U.S. Capitol is not partisan — it’s patriotic.
Dean Obeidallah, a lawyer, hosts SiriusXM radio’s The Dean Obeidallah show and writes frequently for various publications.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
