JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol last month, concluding a historic impeachment trial that spared him the first-ever conviction of a current or former U.S. president.
Seven Republicans joined all the Democrats to convict, 57-43, but it was far from the two-thirds threshold required.
Michael Waltz — a Republican U.S. representative for Florida’s 6th congressional district who represents parts of the southern Jacksonville suburbs all the way to New Smyrna Beach — did not have a vote in the proceedings over the weekend but did vote against impeaching the former president in January. He reiterated his position during an interview with Kent Justice on This Week in Jacksonville that aired Sunday.
“It was rushed. I think it’s highly politicized. I think it sets a very dangerous precedent in making impeachment almost too easy and too common,” Waltz said. “He is now a private citizen. Supporting violence, inciting violence is a crime, and if he has truly committed a crime, prove your case in court.”
MORE: Impeachment isn’t the final word on Capitol riot for Trump
Waltz, who did not vote to overturn election results, said he was on the House floor during the siege on the Capitol and called it “horrific.”
“It is un-American,” he said. “I’ve served in places overseas where we, you know, really deal with our differences in the streets. That’s not what we do in the United States.”
Waltz, who was a vocal supporter of Trump and spoke at his campaign rallies in Florida, said despite the evidence presented by prosecutors, it’s still unclear what happened.
”It appears large parts of what happened on Jan. 6 were pre-planned,” Waltz said. “I do think it’s unconstitutional to go after a president when the whole purpose of impeachment is to remove them from office, to try to remove someone who’s already been removed.”
House prosecutors have argued that Trump was the “inciter in chief” stoking a months-long campaign with an orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims they called the “big lie” that unleashed the mob. Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer.
Waltz said the trial was bad for the country.
“It is pouring fuel on the fire of divisiveness. It’s pouring salt in the wound of so many of President Trump’s supporters. He supported the peaceful transfer of power. He denounced what happened,” Waltz said.
Prosecutors said Trump’s response was too little, too late.
Waltz was asked if Trump bears any responsibility for the events of Jan. 6 by falsely claiming the election was “rigged” before and after the votes were counted for the presidential election.
“I think he was speaking rhetorically,” Waltz said. “He was upset about a lot of things that we saw there are concerns that I share. Florida has had a long history of difficult and badly run elections, but our state legislature over time, got kind of got our act together. We knew the vote totals on the night we had a very well run election. Other states, not so much.”
Waltz was one of more than 100 House Republicans who were a part of a Texas lawsuit to invalidate millions of votes as well as the election results from four key states that were won by President Joe Biden, the Washinton Post reported.
