Susan Collins calls on Trump to retract tweet comparing impeachment inquiry to ‘lynching’
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday called on President Trump to retract a tweet in which he compared the House’s impeachment inquiry to a “lynching,” saying that the term evokes “a terrible time in our nation’s history.”
“I think he should retract it, yes,” Collins told reporters when asked if the president should apologize.
“‘Lynching’ brings back images of a terrible time in our nation’s history, and the President never should have made that comparison,” the Maine senator added on Twitter. The term “lynching” is associated with extrajudicial mob killings of African Americans, which occurred frequently in the South following the Civil War.
“Lynching” brings back images of a terrible time in our nation’s history, and the President never should have made that comparison.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) October 22, 2019
The comments from Collins, who has shown a willingness to condemn Trump’s actions and comments, came just hours after the president likened the impeachment inquiry to a “lynching” while lashing out at the House Democrats’ conduct.
{mosads}”So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” Trump tweeted. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching. But we will WIN!”
Trump has repeatedly targeted Democrats over the impeachment inquiry, often referring to the hearings as “bullshit” and a “coup.” But his latest remarks appeared to cross a line for many Democratic and GOP lawmakers.
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who has been vocal in his opposition to Trump’s actions in Syria, called on the president to retract the statement, saying that people should never use terms like “lynching.”
“The painful scourge in our history has no comparison to politics, and @realDonaldTrump should retract this immediately. May God help us to return to a better way,” Kinzinger tweeted.
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a civil rights activist who founded a chapter of the Black Panthers in the 1960s, called on Trump to delete the tweet and lambasted the president for not considering the history of the extrajudicial practice in America.
“Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country?” he asked.
“I really believe this man is prone to inflammatory statements, and that is one word no president ought to apply to himself,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on CNN.
Several GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), rushed to the president’s defense amid the backlash. Graham stood by Trump’s word usage, saying that the impeachment inquiry was a “a lynching in every sense.”
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