Congressman Jim Baird: Regarding your interview published in the Journal Review on Jan. 15. Crocodile tears. The height of hypocrisy. A disservice to your constituents, the House of Representatives in which you serve, and to the nation.
Mr. Baird, you brag about your coolness during the assault on Congress. You never felt threatened. Well, they weren’t shouting your name, yelling that they were coming for you. They weren’t looking for you and the other legislators who joined in pushing Trump’s lies that the election was illegitimate and had been stolen from him. They were, however, attacking our Capitol, our Congress, our elections, our democratic institutions. We should all feel threatened; you included.
Mr. Baird, you criticize the House for impeaching Trump in his last week in office when there is other important work to do. But you yourself diverted Congress from its important business by advancing the recently unelected President’s thoroughly, officially, and judicially discredited plot to overturn the election. You justified your own support for and vote to challenge the Arizona electoral vote by arguing that election officials in that state and several states changed their election procedures during the pandemic without legislative approval, when you yourself were elected under the same circumstance. Election officials all over Indiana permitted “no excuse” absentee voting by mail without legislative authorization. You won re-election with many, in your terms, illegally cast votes.
By giving support to and keeping alive Trump’s demonstrably false claims, and taking official action to continue his assault on the election, you not only wasted precious congressional time, but also helped draw the target on the Capitol, on Congress as an institution, and on the backs of your fellow legislators who were carrying out their constitutional responsibilities.
David Hadley
Crawfordsville
