21 state attorneys general urge Senate to reject impeachment
21 Republican state attorneys general submit a blistering letter to the Senate rebuking the impeachment of President Trump; Louisiana AG Jeff Landry, Indiana AG Curtis Hill, South Carolina AG Alan Wilson and Arkansas AG Leslie Rutledge speak out on 'Fox & Friends.'
Four of the Republican state attorneys general who sent a blistering letter to the Senate rebuking the impeachment of President Trump appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, saying that “it's tearing at the threads of our democracy.”
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge made the statement on Thursday adding that the attorneys general sent the letter to send a message to the Senate “that this is a constitutionally legally flawed argument.”
The attorneys general of 21 states asserted in the letter submitted to the Senate Wednesday morning and obtained by Fox News that Trump’s impeachment "establishes a dangerous historical precedent" and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson reiterated that point on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.
“To the Democrats out there that are cheering this impeachment and cheering for witnesses and everything, you are creating a very dangerous precedent that I promise will come back to haunt you,” Wilson told host Brian Kilmeade. “This is a precedent that will basically subjugate the presidency of the United States to the whims of the opposition party for every future Congress for here and ever more.”
“As a prosecutor, I never went to trial without a complete and full investigation,” he continued.
INSIDE THE CHAMBER, RESTLESS LAWMAKERS STRUGGLE TO PAY ATTENTION AS SENATE TRIAL DRAGS ON
“The Democrats had an opportunity to interview all the witnesses, the president invoked executive privilege, which nowhere in the articles of impeachment did they mention, they omit that completely and if they thought that the president had violated the law and they didn’t want to use executive privilege, they could have taken him to court and sued him on that, they didn’t do that, but they wanted to rush this to get him into the Senate and then go on a witch hunt at that point.”
In the letter, the Republican attorneys general urged the chamber conducting Trump's trial to "reject" the impeachment articles and picked apart the articles themselves.
The letter accuses House Democrats of impeaching Trump as a politically motivated response to the 2016 election and warned that it poses a threat to the 2020 election as well.
“From day one this was about Democrats being upset about the president's victory and this has been an impeachment march where the engine has been gassed up and a vehicle has been searched for to fill in the gap,” Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said on Thursday.
“[The] problem is, [it is] difficult to find the crime and so they continue to use these theories like corrupt motive suggesting that the president can do things legitimately legally, but if he has a corrupt motive as determined by Congress, well then we can go after him from an impeachment standpoint.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said on Thursday that House Democrats “turned the Senate into like a kangaroo court.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“What we did yesterday in the letter that we sent to the Senate was basically explain to both the Senate and the American people that in any other court of law around this country, these articles could not be had,” Landry said. “You could not take this case in front of any judge and convict anyone based upon evidence that the House Democrats have presented to the Senate.”
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
Fox News First
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.