Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson, who prosecuted Clinton impeachment, says impeaching Trump again was wrong move

Gov. Hutchinson: Trump misled followers into believing election was rigged, resulted in attack on Capitol

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., joins Chris Wallace on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who was a House impeachment manager during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, says he believes it was wrong for the House to impeach President Trump for a second time.

In a conversation with “Fox News Sunday,” Hutchinson criticized both President Trump’s rhetoric about November’s election as well as the House’s decision to impeach him so soon before he is set to leave office anyway.

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“The impeachment is something that is both a legal equation, but it’s also a political equation, and I did not believe that with the remaining weeks that were left in President Trump’s term that that served our country well to go through the House impeachment,” Hutchinson said.

Now that the impeachment has taken place, however, Hutchinson said the Senate must hear the facts and legal arguments at a trial where “the outcome is unpredictable.”

While he was against the impeachment, the Republican Hutchinson said that Trump’s continued challenge of the election result “was wrong and did not serve our nation well,” pointing to the violent protest at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Asked about President Trump’s responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot, Hutchinson did not specifically blame the president but said Trump invited people to a rally, “used very aggressive language,” and “misled people as to … what happened during the election.”

Hutchinson is now focused on preventing a similar incident in his home state on President-elect Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day. He confirmed that he has received intelligence of potential unrest and that he is preparing law enforcement to take precautions.

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“We have both intelligence that there’s going to be activity around our capital and capitals around the country,” Hutchinson said. “Much of it comes from the FBI intelligence and we’re taking necessary precautions to make sure that we protect our capital and our citizens.”

Hutchinson said he did not believe the intelligence rose to a level that necessitated him calling on the National Guard, but he is still planning to have a heightened police presence around the state’s Capitol this week.

“We are using civilian law enforcement, we have response teams there, will have beefed up presence at the Capitol for Tuesday,” he said. “We actually have a rally for today and there’s not – we don’t have any specific intelligence that there’s going to be violence associated with those rallies but we want to be extra precautious.”

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Hutchinson said he thinks “the deterrent value of what we’ve seen over the last couple of days has had an impact and hopefully has diminished that threat level.”

Two men who were arrested for their alleged involvement on Jan. 6 are from Hutchinson’s state. The governor called for them and others who participated to “meet the full measure of the law.”

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