‘Treat no one differently’: NC GOP congressman on the latest Trump indictment
No one should be treated differently under the law because of who they are, Republican U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina told The Charlotte Observer Thursday.
McHenry was responding to a question about his reaction to former President Donald Trump’s indictment on felony charges for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The four-count indictment brought by the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday is the third criminal case against Trump. The indictment accuses him of fomenting lies about his election loss — falsehoods that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, violence at the Capitol, The Associated Press reported.
McHenry didn’t directly name the former president in his reply to the Observer, during an appearance at a Rotary Club of Top of the Lake Mooresville meeting Thursday morning.
“What we don’t want in America is a two-tier system of justice, where a former president, or the son of a president, or a president is treated differently.
“After that, it’s all political conjecture,” McHenry said.
McHenry also referred the Observer to his statement on Jan. 7, 2021, after the Capitol Hill violence.
“All Americans must agree that we can never condone violence,” McHenry said in the statement. “Thank you to the law enforcement officers who helped restore order and continue to protect the building.”
Congressman on Fitch downgrade
McHenry also addressed another major topic this week, telling the Observer he gives no credence to Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of U.S. credit from AAA to AA+.
Fitch cited a soaring national debt and, in recent decades, tax cuts and spending increases, multiple national media outlets reported.
Fitch found that Congress is unlikely to rein in debt before the 2024 presidential election, The Washington Post reported.
In his remarks to the Observer, McHenry disagreed with that dismal forecast. McHenry holds the powerful role of chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which he’s served on since he was first elected to Congress in 2004 when he was 29.
He cited the bipartisan agreement on a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, which caps government borrowing.
Work in Congress has left the U.S. in a great financial position for at least the next decade, McHenry said.
As for Fitch, he said, it ranks only third in clout among its peers.
“Based on market reaction, no one cared about Fitch” and its downgrade, McHenry said.
McHenry also discussed China’s threatening role across the globe and sprinkled in some self-deprecating humor during his remarks to his fellow Rotarians.
McHenry and his family live in Denver, N.C., at Lake Norman. He graduated from Ashbrook High in Gastonia and Belmont Abbey College.
Given his slighter frame, he joked, he was the last person you’d expected to help break up an infamous confrontation between two other House members in Washington on Jan. 6, 2023, during the 14th round of voting for House speaker.
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This story was originally published August 3, 2023 at 1:47 PM.