Speaking in Screven County last week, U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Georgia 12th District, blamed efforts to impeach President Donald Trump on congressional Democrats afraid of losing their party primaries. Allen said he refuses to “throw him under the bus.”
The annual 12th Congressional District Fish Fry hosted by Osal Evans and other area volunteers at the Pathway Center near Sylvania always draws Republican politicians but has not been an official GOP event for several years now. Some nonpartisan officials, such as judges, also attend, and Evans gives it a “God and Country” theme, inviting ministers to sing and pray. Nearly 100 people were there last Thursday evening.
In his remarks, Allen referred to “an activist group,” of Democrats he said has an agenda “to move this country in a direction that is not mainstream America” and would be “democratic socialism.” He called the proposed Green New Deal, in particular, “a complete government takeover of three of the largest economic engines in this country,” namely energy, transportation and agriculture.
Allen did not lump all Democrats into this group but said that Democratic Party leaders, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in particular, are having to go along with the activists for political reasons.
“And y’all have heard it, can you believe it, that we have members of Congress talking about such things,” Allen said. “And frankly, right now Leader Pelosi is having to accommodate them.”
About impeachment
“People ask me about impeachment,” Allen said. “The whole reason that they’ve got to impeach the president is because there’re people in certain districts – and I’ve been told this – that if they don’t vote to impeach the president, they’re getting primaried and they’re not going to be a member of Congress.”
Allen didn’t explain this, but “getting primaried” is political slang for incumbents being defeated in primary elections through challengers’ claims that they are not sufficiently loyal to their party or its agenda.
He mentioned Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York 10th District, as a specific target of this kind of political pressure. Nadler is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
“Jerry Nadler has a primary opponent that has said, if Nadler doesn’t get it done, you elect me and I’ll get this guy out of there, and people believe that,” Allen said. “So you might think things are going well over there, but they’re in a little bit of a fight for a life in this new, changing Democratic Party, and it is changing rapidly.”
He suggested that, while not all congressional Democrats are part of the most activist group, they have party unity, while Republicans do not.
“There are some great members on the other side, but they’re so locked in, and President Trump is right, he said that we’re not,” Allen continued, adding that, at another recent event he had said “that the biggest problem we have is unifying our people.”
Trump seems to be “in pretty good shape” with other Republicans one week, but the next week that changes, Georgia’s 12th District congressman said.
Not ‘under the bus’
“I have to get up and look at the news every morning because when I go out there among the people, it’s like, ‘What in the world has he done now?’” Allen said. “But I will tell you this. It would be easy to throw him under the bus. In fact, it would be easy for me to throw a lot of my colleagues under the bus. But I refuse to do that.”
This drew some applause from the fish fry crowd.
Allen, saying that had left his Bible outside in his vehicle, then mentioned two chapters of scripture. The first was Romans 13 in the New Testament, which he followed with an Old Testament reference.
“Basically, God anoints all authority, folks, and if you don’t believe in that authority, you don’t believe in God,” Allen said. “Now, he gives the people what they want. He did that in 2 Samuel 8. He told the people what was going to happen to them when they wanted big government, they wanted a king.”
“He said, well, you know that king’s going to be dependent on him, and he’s going to want you to serve him,” Allen continued. “And so, what do we have in big government? Big government wants you dependent on it, and they want you to serve it, and that my friends is the battle in Washington, D.C., and the biggest obstacle they’ve got is President Donald Trump, and that’s why you’re seeing the battle of our lifetimes in Washington, D.C.”
‘Telling our story’
Later in his remarks, Allen said that he thinks Pelosi’s intent now is to deliver an impeachment to the Senate before Christmas. Impeachment is widely expected to fall short of conviction in the Republican-majority Senate. But Allen said Democrats intend to use it to shift the political pressure onto swing-state senators who refuse to vote for the president to be removed.
“So it’s all politically motivated…,” Allen said. “So it will be the same type of political pressure until election season happens and by next August we’re going to all be up on the air and we’re going to be telling our story.
“We’re going to be telling a story about creating the best economy in the world,” he continued. “We’re going to tell the story about creating more jobs than there are people looking for jobs. We’re going to tell the story that young people can live the American dream.”