In case you missed it, Donald Trump compared the looming threat of impeachment to “a lynching.” Because he always knows just what to say:
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. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2019
Grossness and tiresome victimhood narrative aside, it’s pretty hard to take criticism of Trump’s poor choice of words seriously when it’s coming from someone like self-described historian Kevin Kruse:
Is it, Kevin? Is it?
Fifth, this isn't the first time people have referred to an impeachment proceeding against a president as a "lynching" — it came up often when conservatives tried to defend Richard Nixon in the Watergate investigation. pic.twitter.com/XwRpju7jPn
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
Sixth, some conservatives insist on calling the impeachment campaign against Nixon a "lynching" even to this day.
This is from a couple months ago: pic.twitter.com/k7CvZLO14H
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
Seventh — and read this part slowly if the last two didn't shock you — there is NO reason to liken the Constitution's formal remedy for removing a president to an illegal mob action that seeks to subvert the rule of law with the kidnapping, murder and mutilation of a suspect.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
Eighth — and I CANNOT believe this part actually needs to be said — comparing impeachment proceedings to a lynching is even more insulting when you've cozied up to the very forces of white supremacy that historically have used lynching as a tool to terrorize racial minorities.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
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Ninth — again, hard to believe we have to say this, but here we are — when your supporters at rallies are wearing shirts that "joke" about lynching the media whom you repeatedly denounce as "enemies of the state," you shouldn't claim that *you* are the victim of lynching. pic.twitter.com/hDaHc3lDOW
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
Tenth, lynching is essentially the subversion of the rule of law.
Impeachment, in sharp contrast, is the rule of law. It's the constitutional provision for handling a president who has disgraced his office, as designed by the founding fathers.
YOU are seeking to subvert that.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
Eleventh, and related to that, you are seeking to subvert the rule of law here by spreading fear, confusion and hatred.
Again, I think it's insulting to bring lynching into this, but if anything here even remotely resembles the dynamics of a lynch mob, it's not your critics.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 22, 2019
Kevin here is extremely offended by Trump’s use of the word “lynching,” you guys. As an academic and Very Important Historian, he just can’t allow this sort of trivialization of historical atrocities to stand.
Using the word lynching is bad but comparing everything a republican does to the Holocaust is totally ok
Thanks history expert guy https://t.co/x5X7ruMIkO
— Malak Kobbe (@Malak_Kobbe) October 22, 2019
Well, yeah. Obviously:
Without irony and with gusto he does so. pic.twitter.com/6KQgcUQedN
— Ducky ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@thatjerkme) October 22, 2019
In a thread on AOC's "Never Again" usage of all things.
— Ducky ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@thatjerkme) October 22, 2019
He's all about historical accuracy. pic.twitter.com/mUdtyE4WsB
— Felipe Del Taco (@philllosoraptor) October 22, 2019
He’s a Very Important Historian. Did he mention that?
.@KevinMKruse: It’s “twelve different kinds of bullshit” for Trump to invoke the word “lynching”
Also Kruse: AOC is totally right to liken ICE detention facilities to Holocaust death camps.
Also Kruse: Have I mentioned I’m a historian? https://t.co/wYOsnCtYWT
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 22, 2019
