WATCH: Rep. Mace Condemns President Trump, Will Vote No on Impeachment

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is not the reason why I wanted to give my first speech in our chambers, in our hallowed halls. This is not what I wanted to do in my first week in office, but after the violent events of last week, watching and witnessing how heartbreaking this was, thank God I sent my kids home on Monday morning because I was worried about the rhetoric leading up to the events, and to the rally on January 6, the violence that could transpire. Not only were our lives in danger, but if my kids were here their lives would have been in danger, too. The two most precious people in my life.

“Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States, the U.S. House of Representatives has every right to impeach the President of the United States, but what we’re doing today, rushing this impeachment in an hour, or two-hour long debate on the floor of this chamber, bypassing the judiciary, poses great questions about the constitutionality of this process.
I believe we need to hold the President accountable. I hold him accountable for the events that transpired for the attack on our Capitol last Wednesday. I also believe that we need to hold accountable every single person, even Members of Congress, if they contributed to the violence that transpired here.

“But today, I’m asking my colleagues to remember the words of the legendary, the great leader in this country, Dr. Martin Luther King, who once said, ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’ And if we’re serious about healing the divisions in this country, Republicans and Democrats need to acknowledge this is not the first day of violence we’ve seen. We’ve seen violence across our country for the last nine months. And we need to recognize, number one, that our words have consequences. That there is violence on both sides of the aisle. We’ve contributed to it. We need to take responsibility for our words and our actions. We need to acknowledge there is a problem, take responsibility for it, and stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution.

“God bless every member in the chamber today, and god bless the United States of America. I yield back. Thank you.” ​