Continue speaking out, demand accountability
I agree with Sen. Tester that until those who enabled the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including Sen. Daines and Congressman Rosendale, take responsibility for their words and
actions we will not be able to heal the division in our country. This deep division puts us at great risk to our enemies outside our country, but I believe we are at just as much, if not more, risk from our leaders that caused the insurrection. We all need to continue to speak out and demand accountability.
Anne D. Schumacher
Bozeman
Daines pushed lie to enhance political position
In the Chronicle this month, Sen. Daines denies any responsibility for the siege of the Capitol. He claims that “there has been dangerous rhetoric from all sides.” This clearly echoes President Trump’s claim after the Charlottesville riot in 2017 the there were “very fine people on both sides.” Daines’ attempt to deny responsibility is just as appalling as the president’s attempts at deflection.
Yes, Mr. Daines, you must be held accountable for the desecration of the Capitol and the lives lost in the attempted coup. You continued to perpetuate the lie that the election of Mr. Biden was fraudulent and the there was massive voter fraud despite the statements of the courts, the election officials and the Attorney General (many Republicans among them) that the election was free and fair.
Notwithstanding your last minute retreat, you continued to push the lie to its horrific end. When asked by the media to supply evidence of fraud, you failed to respond. I can only conclude that you have deliberately lied in order to enhance your political position. What is even more egregious is that you were sending out text messages that “Dems are stealing the election” and asking for donations at the same time that the Capitol was being overrun by thugs and people were dying in its sacred halls. You claim that we must lower the temperature of the political rhetoric.
Let me make some suggestions: Publicly acknowledge that Biden won the presidency in a free and fair election. Apologize to the Montana electorate for lying to them. Donate all of the funds you raised with your tweets and deliberate lies to the family of the Capitol policeman who lost his life defending our freedoms. Accept your responsibility in the riots that ensued and do the honorable thing: resign.
Jerry Coffey
Bozeman
Daines needs to apologize, commit to representing us
Does Sen. Daines not understand how his promotion of conspiracy theories of voter fraud (when there is absolutely no evidence of fraud) has put the life of Vice President Pence in danger? Not to mention the lives of his fellow Senators, Congressmen, police officers and others? Does he not make the connection between his actions and the attacks on our democracy? And a violent coup
attempt?
We have a pretty good idea of how history will treat the likes of Senators Cruz, Hawley, Daines and others — and their naïve promotion of ideas meant to take down this country. But perhaps more importantly, the questions for Daines now are: Does he have the humility, grace, and personal integrity to apologize to the people of Montana and the United States of America? Does he have the personal integrity to admit the endangerment his actions have had and may continue to have on this country? Can he make amends and commit to truly representing us for the duration of his term?
And if not, then we have to ask ourselves — why do we have a traitor representing the people of Montana?
Kris Thomas,
Bozeman
Daines, Rosendale played off lies for political gain
Montana’s representatives need to do their part to ensure a peaceful transition of power, from the Trump Administration to the new Biden Administration. I’d also like our representatives to ask, why are people so angry that a violent insurrection happened at our capitol last week? Could it be that people are angry because they think this election was fraudulent and that Biden did not actually win? Why is it that when over 60 courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, have not found evidence to support claims of voting fraud and vote recounts have happened in multiple states (Georgia 3 times!), people are still convinced fraud happened? All the way to the Supreme Court, no evidence!
Why did representatives, like Montana’s Sen. Daines and U.S. Rep. Rosendale, continue to say we need to investigate allegations of fraud after all the court cases and recounts? From there it’s not hard to leap to the conclusion, that not only was this election stolen, but our courts must be corrupt as well. Pretty alarming stuff if you actually believe it.
One of the jobs of our representatives is to communicate what is happening in government to the public. Daines and Rosendale have said they were trying to restore people’s faith in our electoral system, yet, instead we now have a significant portion of the population, that not only thinks we are about to inaugurate someone who did not win the election, but that our courts cannot be trusted.
Not only should Trump be held accountable, but all of the representatives that played off lies and conspiracy theories for political expediency. It’s been dangerous all along and we got to see the frightening ramifications earlier this month. Daines’ and Rosendale’s role in where we now are as a country is undeniable.
Rachel Esbjornson
Bozeman
Time for all to embrace freedom, truth, democracy
Jan. 6, 2021, will live in infamy as one of greatest domestic terrorist acts in American history. If foreign terrorists had attacked our nation’s capital, a unified and outraged America would demand
retribution. But now that domestic Christian Nationalist terrorists have stormed and ransacked our Capitol in an attempted insurrection, many Americans, including our own Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Matt Rosendale, have refused to hold the terrorists and their leader, President Donald Trump, accountable.
How could this happen in the land of the free and the brave?
Tragically, throughout our nation’s history many Americans have rejected freedom, democracy and patriotism in favor of hatred and violence.
In 1861 Southern Christian Nationalists, in the name of God opposed to democracy and freedom and seeking the perpetual enslavement of Black Americans, committed treason and went to war
against our nation.
The KKK, a domestic Christian terrorist organization opposed to democracy and freedom, murdered many thousands of Black Americans over the course of a century.
Millions of conservative American Christians, opposed to democracy and freedom, in the 1930s condemned FDR and supported authoritarian and racist Christian Nationalist Nazism.
Since the Civil Rights era of the 1960s Christian Nationalists, opposed to democracy and freedom, have longed for authoritarian leaders committed to white supremacy.
Christian Nationalism, rooted in white supremacy and constructed upon lies, is neither Christian nor patriotic.
Now is the time for all patriotic Americans to embrace freedom, truth and democracy by clearly denouncing the domestic terrorist acts of Jan. 6, as well as the lies of a “stolen election” that led to the insurrection.
Sen. Daines and Rep. Rosendale, you have not demonstrated the courage to come to the defense of your country and the truth in this hour of great peril. The time has come for you to resign. Immediately.
Bruce Gourley
Churchill
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letters to the Editor 1/22/21