Beaudion Ignoring Trump, Bengs Ignoring Necessity of Impeachment

On Wednesday, new advocacy group Turn South Dakota Purple hosted a “conversation” with independent Brian Bengs and Democrat Julian Beaudion, the men challenging Republican Mike Rounds for his U.S. Senate seat.

I have a 56-minute transcript to review, but the first thing that stands out is that neither man addresses the most pressing issue facing the nation and any candidate seeking to make positive change in Washington: the legal and moral imperative to remove Donald Trump from the White House.

The only mention of Trump by name comes from Beaudion, who says, “This is not about Donald Trump.”

Ridiculous. The midterm election is absolutely, inescapably about Donald Trump. The primary question before every midterm voter is, do you want a Congress that continues to rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s often-illegal diktats, or do you want a Congress that reasserts its co-equality and checks the Executive’s abuse of the office and disregard for the Constitution?

Bengs appears to understand that choice and the need for Congress to regrow its Constitutional spine. He mentions impeachment twice, but instead of directly advocating for impeachment, he twists the imperative into a recitation of his own resume and a promise to judge impartially if impeachment happens:

Finally, the Senate is a direct check on the abuse of executive and judicial authority, with each senator serving as a juror for any impeachment trial. As a former Navy sailor and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, I’ve supported and defended the Constitution all over the world. I have practiced, taught, and published articles on international law, treaties, and the law of war, including one one very relevant now, analyzing a potential US attack on the Iranian nuclear program during a past period of heightened tensions. I’ve worked closely with our Asian and European allies. I ran NATO’s individual legal education program at the NATO School where I taught military operational law and traveled to guest lecture at multiple national military schools across Europe to include Ukraine. In Japan, I was a State Department designated trial observer, ensuring an American citizen prosecuted in the Japanese criminal court received all the due process rights required by the treaty. Over my two decades in the Air Force JAG Corps, I have been a military prosecutor, military defense counsel, and a federal ethics advisor, and a supervising attorney. I’m admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the U.S. Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. I’ve advised military commanders of every rank on criminal law. On federal fiscal and contract law, on federal environmental law, on federal labor law, and federal administrative law. I taught Air Force Academy cadets and Northern State University students about our Constitution, its history, and different Supreme Court interpretive approaches. I look forward to educating Mike Rounds on the proper role of the U.S. military in matters of war and peace. I spent enough time doing court martial jury selection and teaching criminal justice to must understand that the impeachment process requires impartial jurors who will cast their vote based upon evidence presented, which is what I pledge to do in any trial [Brian Bengs, candidate conversation, Turn South Dakota Purple, 2026.07.01, timestamp 25:05].

But impeachment of this President, at this moment in history, isn’t just any trial. Impeachment now, or at the earliest convening of a reformed and right-thinking 120th Congress, is the necessary correction of an error the Senate made twice to protect a felon and tyrant and permit his return to power. Impeachment is the only way Congress and the people of the United States can now hold that felonious tyrant accountable for his growing list of crimes and corruption. Impeachment is the last, best remaining means of removing that felonious tyrant from power and restoring the rule of law in America.

And impeachment is the only way that Bengs or Beaudion or any other decent patriot who may win a seat in Congress in this mid-term election will be able to achieve any good and necessary policy changes, as Trump will veto and ignore anything else Congress tries to do to check his power and make America free again.

Now is not the time to speak of impeachment in the abstract. Conscientious candidates for Congress cannot ignore Trump, and they cannot speak of impartiality toward Trump’s crimes. They must list and explain those crimes and promise to hold Donald Trump accountable for them. Candidates and all other patriots must make the case for impeachment… as U.S. Air Force Major Jason Watson did Wednesday before his arrest for protesting on the U.S. Capitol Steps:

“For the past 18 months, we the people have allowed the highest levels of the executive branch of the federal government to violate our Constitution and their oaths to it with impunity,” Watson stated.

“When the President of the United States orders military action against foreign countries absent an emergency scenario where American interests are under imminent dire threat, as was done with Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, that’s an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause,” he continued.

Watson said that the violations caused the death of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more, and for that, Trump and Vance should be impeached, convicted and removed from office.

The major also pointed to other “violations,” such as Elon Musk being allowed to shut down large portions of the federal government and granted access to government databases as well as Trump directing the Department of Homeland Security to deny due process before illegally detaining people and sending them to CECOT, a foreign prison in El Salvador notorious for human rights abuses.

In Watson’s view, Trump “sponsors violence” on the American people engaged in their right to peacefully assemble and protest as protected by the First Amendment as a reason for the pair’s removal.

Watson said there are “innumerable more impeachable offenses” that he could list, including denying congressional oversight of immigrant detention centers, suing media, law firms and educational institutions, weaponizing the Department of Justice and attempting to reverse birthright citizenship [Cristina Stassis, “Air Force Major Arrested on Capitol Steps During Protest Calling for Trump Impeachment,” Military Times, 2026.07.02].

Candidates for Congress, the nation is in crisis. Impeachment is the solution to that crisis. Cowboy up and call for impeachment.