WASHINGTON, DC (KERO) — On Wednesday, President Donald Trump became the first president in history to be impeached twice by the House. This was largely sparked due to the storming of the capitol that occurred last week by a group of Trump supporters, that left many injured and multiple dead.
Local chair members of both the Democratic and Republican parties have many different views on several topics, including the recent impeachment. But they say one thing they have in common, is an agreement that is that violence is never the answer.
"I think we have more in common than we do between the parties apart. We have some shared humanity, and if we can get back to that, we can make sure what happened earlier doesn't happen again," said Vice-chair of the Kern County Republican Party, Michael Caves.
Caves is talking about the attack on the capitol last week, while he condemns the riots, he says those actions are not representative of the party and goes against what he says President Trump stands for.
"Supporting law enforcement, his positions on respecting the flag, his positions on supporting law and order, there was nothing that we saw at the capitol that was consistent with those positions."
However, on Wednesday several house Republicans, including David Valadao voted in favor of impeaching Trump.
"I do applaud them but I think that more need to step up and say this is wrong. Our president committed a crime, we need to impeach him," said Christian Romo, of the Kern County Democratic Party.
Christian Romo with the Kern County Democratic Party believes Trump needs to be held accountable.
"Just because he only has a few days left in office, thank God, he still needs to face consequences for his actions," added Romo.
With less than a week left in office, Romo says there are other reasons he stands with the impeachment.
"He will not be able to run for office, and also he won't be able to receive the benefits that every former president gets, the pension, the travel budgets."
He says storming the capitol was an attack on our Democracy and the impeachment would also send a message out to the rest of America.
"We do not put up with this kind of terrorism in our own country by our own people. And we need to let his supporters know they cannot do this."
Since Trump only has those few days left in office, Caves believes Democrats should be focusing on bigger issues surrounding the pandemic, saying that the impeachment is largely political.
"An opportunity for Democrats to get whatever Republicans they can to go against the party, to create division, for a political purpose, and that's to get Republicans out of office."
President-elect Joe Biden is set to be sworn in on January 20, but the chances of the Senate beginning an impeachment trial before then doesn’t seem to be likely.
