A South Carolina Republican who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion paid the price on Tuesday night.
According to The New York Times, Rep. Tom Rice lost in the Republican primary to state Rep. Russell Fry. Rice, and he is the fifth of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump who will lose their seat — as four others have chosen to retire.
With 95 percent reported as of Wednesday, Fry had received 51.1 percent of the vote. Rice, meanwhile, only garnered 24.5 percent.
Rice was steadfast in defending his impeachment vote throughout the campaign. The week before the primary election, he said he would make the same vote again.
“Defend the Constitution — that’s what I did,” Rice said, according to MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin. “That was the conservative vote … I was livid. I am livid today about it. I took an oath to protect the Constitution. I did it then, and I would do it again tomorrow.”
Republican Tom Rice on his vote to impeach Trump to ABC: “Defend the Constitution — that’s what I did. That was the conservative vote … I was livid. I am livid today about it. I took an oath to protect the Constitution. I did it then, and I would do it again tomorrow.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 6, 2022
Meanwhile, Fry repeatedly hit Rice for the impeachment vote and earned an endorsement from Trump himself.
“Tom Rice broke the trust of the people of the Pee Dee and Grand Strand when he voted to impeach President Donald Trump,” Fry wrote on his website, according to a separate article in The New York Times.
Of course, Democrats have been quick to paint Rice as a hero who took a stand against Trump, whom they believe is some sort of evil dictator.
Are you glad to see Fry win this primary?
“Tom Rice carried himself with integrity and dignity,” leftist pundit Tim Miller wrote on Twitter. “So of course he is getting thrust out. It’s all so dispiriting.”
However, the reality is Trump did nothing on Jan. 6, 2021, that would merit impeachment, and Rice is now facing the consequences for his ridiculous vote.
Since no one on the sham impeachment committee has accurately recalled what Trump said on that day, here is a clip from the rally that preceded the incursion at the Capitol.
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said.
Why aren’t Democrats showing this clip? pic.twitter.com/gRwBX86JJk
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) June 10, 2022
Whenever Democrats talk about Jan. 6, they never mention this line because it completely debunks the idea that Trump somehow “incited violence.” Trump urged his supporters to protest peacefully, which is a right explicitly given to Americans in the Constitution.
Many Democrats have said Trump incited violence with the words, “fight like hell,” but as Trump’s defense team proved in the impeachment trial, politicians often refer to “fighting” without meaning to encourage physical violence. If Democrats like Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris were held to the same standard, they would all have been impeached already.
WATCH: Trump lawyers show montage of Democrats ‘inciting violence’ by telling their supporters to ‘fight like hell’ pic.twitter.com/TAThLBcf94
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 12, 2021
Trump simply encouraged his supporters to exercise their constitutional rights on Jan. 6, 2021, yet Rice said he was somehow protecting the Constitution by impeaching Trump over those comments. The argument is completely illogical, and that is why voters chose to remove him from Congress.
