"There can be no unity without justice"

National Nurses United (NNU) applauds the impeachment of President Trump by the House of Representatives and urges the Senate to follow up with an immediate trial and conviction.

“A second impeachment and the first-ever conviction of a president by the Senate would send an unequivocal message about President Trump’s violation of his Constitutional oath in encouraging the deplorable violent assault on the Capitol and unprecedented attempted coup intended to overthrow the democratic presidential election by United States voters,” said NNU President Jean Ross, RN.

NNU, she said, “supports the opening statement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who declared that ‘We know that we faced enemies of the Constitution ... and we know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country.’"

“Through his repeated false claims of a stolen election, embrace of the most outlandish conspiracy fantasies, and urging of his supporters to mobilize at the Capitol to disrupt and prevent the certification of the elected president, we agree this president has breached his Constitutional duty and promoted sedition against our nation,” said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN.

“He should be held fully accountable, including standing trial, and barred from holding office in the future,” Castillo added. Further, “legislators who continued to vote to block the certification – even after the destructive attack on the symbolic seat of our democracy – and provided aid and comfort to the insurrection, also violated their oath of office, and should face consequences. They should resign or face expulsion.”

Nurses, said Ross, “like all people in the United States were horrified by the images of the assault, and, as we are continuing to learn, threats to kidnap or murder elected officials, as well as the murder of a Capitol police officer. While many of the understaffed Capitol police acted heroically in the face of danger, we are equally disturbed by reports of possible involvement of some officers and some legislators in the failed coup. There must be a thorough investigation, with accountability, for anyone found to be complicit.”

“Calls by some to forgive and forget in the name of ‘unity,'” said Castillo, “is dangerous at a time when there are many armed insurrectionists and far-right militias who continue to threaten our federal officials and government and many state elected leaders and Capitols. There can be no ‘unity’ without justice.”

“It is vital that we learn the tragic lessons of our history when victorious leaders in the North stood by and promoted ‘reunion’ with the defeated leaders of the Confederacy, rather than accountability. The result was enabling decades of terrorism directed at formerly enslaved and other Black Americans, and a century of repression of political rights and living standards that continues to haunt our country today.”

“As a nation, we must dedicate ourselves to rooting out the threat of far-right terrorism and plague of white supremacist hatred that animates so much of it, and commit to building once and for all a nation of tolerance, healing, and racial justice,” Ross said. “Unless we make that a priority, this scourge will impede any progress we can make in health and economic security for all Americans that is so vital to our future.”