Nearly 400 Democrat staff workers from offices in both chambers of Congress are begging senators to take the trauma they experienced during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol seriously and vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his upcoming impeachment trial.
"Our workplace was attacked by a violent mob trying to stop the electoral college vote count," 370 staff members wrote in an open letter, reports NBC News. "That mob was incited by former president Donald J. Trump and his political allies, some of whom we pass every day in the hallways at work."
The staffers work for more than 100 House and 15 Senate offices, including those with members on the judiciary, oversight, and foreign affairs committees.
They also wrote that the attack on their workplace "was inspired by lies told by the former president and others about the results of the election in a baseless, months-long effort to reject votes lawfully cast by the American people."
The staff members also wrote that unlike the Senate, "as congressional employees, we don't have a vote on whether to convict Donald J. Trump for his role in inciting the violent attack at the Capitol, but our senators do, and for our sake, and the sake of the country, we ask that they vote to convict the former president and bar him from ever holding office again."
To convict Trump, 67 senators must agree that he is guilty of inciting the violence at the Capitol, which means 17 Republicans and all Democrats will have to support the verdict. However, 45 out of the 50 Republicans in the Senate voted for a failed measure saying the impeachment trial would be unconstitutional.
The violent riots, coming after Trump spoke to supporters during a massive rally, left five people dead, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who is now lying in honor in the Capitol Rotunda that just weeks before had been filled with protesters.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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