As Congress continued to push for the removal of President Donald Trump for insurrection, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tn., on Tuesday noted his opposition, while calling for unity.
Green, in a statement, called the violence last week at the U.S. capitol, “unthinkable.”
Green’s statement was issued after multiple interview requests from The Leaf-Chronicle. A spokesperson for Green initially agreed to arrange an interview, but failed to follow up to arrange an interview with Tennessee’s District 7 Congressional representative.
Green’s statement comes as he’s been identified as one of the Tennessee Republican lawmakers whose decision to object to the Electoral College certification has cost them political donations from a number of large companies.
Green was among the 147 Republican lawmakers who objected to the certification of the Electoral College votes. Trump spent months calling those results into question.
The final Electoral College vote tally awarded the presidency to Joe Biden, with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 242 votes.
The Supreme Court twice refused to take up Trump-endorsed lawsuits that sought to reverse the results, and federal and state courts dismissed his claims of voter fraud nearly 60 times.
As Congress met last Wednesday to certify the Electoral College results, Trump held a rally in Washington D.C. He repeated falsehoods about the election being stolen and called on thousands of supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol to “stop the steal.”
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” Trump said, “and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
“We will never give up,” Trump also told the crowd. “We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
Soon after, Capitol police were overrun by rioters, who stormed into the building, searching for lawmakers, looting the seat of American democracy, leading to the deaths of five people.
In the statement, Green said: “Our country just witnessed an unthinkable act of violence against our Capitol, and I’m grateful law enforcement continues to bring those who committed the crime to justice. Now is the time for this country to come together. Unity can only be achieved by focusing on where we find common ground instead of drawing new battle lines. Sadly, the efforts to impeach a President with only a week remaining in his term will only tear us further apart.
“The rioting we’ve seen this past year—in cities across this country and at the Capitol—manifest that our nation is bitterly divided. Half the country has serious questions about the integrity of the election; the other half believes the President incited an insurrection. Some see hypocrisy and complete disdain from Washington; others see a fundamentally unjust system. Communities have been bitterly divided, and many have lost friends. It seems some have forgotten that we are all Americans.
“So much of the American story has been about people from all walks of life coming together as one people. This kind of unity is uniquely American, but today, we have too many people choosing division instead of unity, personality and party instead of ‘one nation under God.’ We live in the greatest, most exceptional nation in world history. We can come together once again.
“Every one of us has a role to play in bridging the divide. I urge all Americans to get off social media, and instead, talk with your neighbors, go to your house of worship, and call that family member you always argue with at Thanksgiving. And I hope President-elect Biden will ask his Congressional colleagues to work toward uniting the country instead of pursuing a rushed impeachment that will only deepen the wedge between us.”