A coalition of activist groups and individuals gathered in the Capitol Rotunda today in Frankfort to demand that Senator Mitch McConnell hold a fair and impartial hearing on the impeachment charges against President Trump.
The rally, organized by MoveOn.org and a number of Kentucky organizations, heard from elected officials, a high school activist, a former military prosecutor, and the leader of a civic engagement group. All hit the same theme: Senator McConnell, do your job and take a stand for democracy.
Below are some of the comments by the speakers, as well as a small gallery of photos taken at the rally.
Kimberly Cecil-Jones
The rally was emceed by Kimberly Cecil-Jones, the founder of the podcast “The Jones Report” and a board member of IndivisibleKY. She opened the rally by reading a statement from that chapter of Indivisible:
Indivisible KY calls on Kentucky senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul to put our country ahead of partisanship and assure FULL transparency in the upcoming impeachment trial. Americans deserve to know all of the facts surrounding the President’s actions, and his reasons for taking them. Too much evidence is being withheld, and the truth can only be known if the key fact witnesses are allowed to testify and documents are released. Americans want the truth, and we will hold accountable those who seek to cover it.
Mikala Weaver, high school activist
“… Unfortunately, many members of my generation — Generation Z — are beginning to normalize Trump’s criminal behavior, because we have had few other leaders to compare him to in our lifetimes. My generation is often ignored in discussions of political matters, even though we, along with the millennials, will make up the largest group of voters in the next presidential election. … We need to show my generation and the future leaders of our nation that the United States of America cannot be led by a criminal.”
Marc Murphy, lawyer and editorial cartoonist
Marc Murphy’s talk was longer than some of the others, and really deserved its own coverage in terms of the background and critical points he made. We have pulled it from this story and put it into its own story, which you can find here.
Coalition partners
Jones then took a moment to list all the coalition partners that helped put on the rally:
- ACLU of KY
- Indivisible KY
- Indivisible Northern KY 4
- KY NOW
- Bluegrass Activist Alliance
- Together Frankfort
- Louisville Young Democrats
- UofL Young Democrats
- March on Fort Thomas
- MoveOn.org.
Karen Armstrong-Cummings, chair of Together Frankfort
“Today, January 6th, exactly 100 years ago, in this building, women got the right to vote. The Kentucky legislature ratified the 19th amendment. And we didn’t just get it; we fought for it!
“… Three years ago, Together Frankfort was organized on this very day.
“… The first person to speak out against McConnell’s plan to coordinate with the White House was a woman, Senator Lisa Murkowski. So listen to the women!
“… We will NOT sit down, we will NOT be quiet – we WILL PERSIST!”
Representative Reginald Meeks
“I’ve been around Kentucky politics for a long time. And one of the things that I’ve learned, is that the decisions we as leaders make should be in the best interests of our constituents through the seventh generation out. We are supposed to make decisions that are in their best interests. … Mitch McConnell needs to understand that he is setting a precedent that will last all of our lifetimes.
… It’s Mitch’s responsibility to ensure a fair trial. And Mitch, we’re going to hold you to that responsibility.
… We all have a job to do, to go home and ensure everybody in our neighborhoods, everybody in our churches, everybody at work, everybody in our local schools, understands that we all have a responsibility to make sure people hold Mitch McConnell accountable. We do that, we will change not just the face of Kentucky, but we can change the face of Washington D.C.
Congressman John Yarmuth
“I’m tempted to just get up here and say (pointing to Mikala) ‘what she said.’”
“… Three weeks ago, I walked into the chamber and hit the Yes button twice. It wasn’t hard for me; it was one of the easiest votes I’ve cast in my thirteen years in the House. It was not so easy for some of my colleagues. A lot of my colleagues really struggled with this vote – many of them elected in districts that voted for Donald Trump, some by significant margins. For them, it was a Profile in Courage.”
“… [Donald Trump] has been committing impeachable offenses since the day he took office. Mitch McConnell knows it. And what Mitch McConnell does, as he always does — and I’ve known him since 1968 — is make political calculations. And in this case, he has two: what does this do to my re-election, and what does this do to my majority? And what I believe he has done is make a political calculation that it is far riskier to let the American people see the evidence of the crimes that President Trump has committed, and to hear from the witnesses that were involved in that whole mess, than it is risky to just have a sham proceeding.
“I happen to think the American people will see through this. We know 75% of people, including 65% of Republicans, think there ought to be witnesses at the trial. The public understands what a fair proceeding looks like. And he and the Republicans will pay a price if they don’t have one.
“And, if they allow the witnesses that they should, and allow the documents to be advanced, some of which came to light in just the last week, that we’d never heard about before, then I think the American people will demand the judgement that I think is the ultimate judgement: that President Trump should be removed from office.
“… I hope that everyone understands what’s at stake here. I had the honor of serving in Congress with David Obee. David Obee served in the House for 14 years, from Madison, Wisconsin. He was chairman of the Appropriations Committee my first couple of terms. And, I ran into him about six months ago. We were talking about the same stuff, the Trump administration and the threat that it poses. And he said to me, “John, you know, democracy does not guarantee a happy ending.” I said “Wow, David, that is pretty damn heavy.” But I think he’s absolutely right. It’s like the speech at the end of The American President, when Michael Douglas says “Democracy is not easy. Democracy is hard work.” We’re seeing the kind of hard work that it takes to save it right now.
“I’ve done what I can do, in terms of my power: I’ve helped send those charges to the Senate. We have to keep the noise up, that we want the kind of process the American people deserve and expect. The kind of process that actually allows evidence and testimony, because we are involved in a sacred and solemn process right now.
“We have to keep the heat on Mitch. He will be the one that makes the decision. And he can decide whether to stand up for democracy, or to stand up and be complicit for the most corrupt, unprincipled, immoral president the United States has ever had.”