Yes, I watched just about all of the Trump impeachment trial over the last week. I, along with everyone else, knew what the results would be. But it was history. It was important to witness what the two sides would say to make their case for incitement of insurrection. The House managers wove together a compelling visual case of the months long campaign by Trump to deny the election results and whip his fanatic followers into a frenzy that ended in one of the worst days in American history. Trump’s defense lawyers said Trump was exercising his First Amendment right of free speech and was not responsible for the actions of the mob he encouraged and the whole impeachment trial was unconstitutional. But it really didn’t matter in the end.
Impeachment is a political process, very different from a criminal or civil trial where the accused is judged by a jury of their peers. They are questioned by the lawyers for both sides to make sure they can be impartial and not pre-judge the case before they hear all the evidence. Verdicts have to be unanimous. In an impeachment trial, the jury is the one hundred senators. While an impeachment verdict doesn’t have to be unanimous, the Founding Fathers set a very high bar of two-thirds majority for conviction. With a 50-50 split in the senate, we all knew seventeen Republicans would have to vote for conviction. There’s the problem. The jury of senators was not impartial and just about all of them made up the minds weeks ago, and most importantly, they were victims of the crime they were judging. They ran for their lives from a mob chasing them through the halls of the Capitol, still the Republicans sat in real fear of retaliation by the accused if they voted to convict.
The Republicans know their party has become a personality cult. They know almost seventy five million people voted for Trump. Trump has promised to support extreme primary opponents against those senators who didn’t support him. In other words, he was threatening their jobs, if they didn’t go long with the Big Lie. Sounds like something out of The Sopranos. They hid behind the excuse that you can’t impeach a president after he’s left office. The most influential Republican after Trump, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, stood up before the senate and the country and professed his belief that Trump was absolutely guilty of the crime, but he couldn’t vote for conviction because he believes it’s unconstitutional to impeach a president who is already out of office. Despite the fact that just about every constitutional law expert disagrees with that theory. McConnell is reported to have said he hates Trump and wants the party to move pasted him. This after four years of unwavering support for the worst president in history.
There were seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump. Before you think they were showing great political courage and were risking their future, let’s take a look:
Richard Burr of North Carolina-retiring
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana-not up for re-election until 2026
Susan Collins of Maine-not up for re-election until 2026.
Mitt Romney of Utah-he did vote to convict Trump in both impeachment trials. He’s not up for re-election until 2024.
Ben Sasse of Nebraska-not up for re-election until 2026
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania- retiring
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska-up for re-election in 2022. She won the general election in 2010 as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary. She had strong support from independents and Democrats.
So this wasn’t a trial at all. It was a political exercise. The jurors were the victims of the crime they were judging, and most feared the accused would exact revenge if they crossed him. They hid behind the weak unconstitutional argument and the fact that Trump was already out of office and they can count on his support in the future and even vote for him again if runs in 2024.
Trump’s legal issues are not over. He faces possible criminal and civil charges in New York. If that should happen, the jury of victims will be happy leave it to ordinary citizens to be impartial, follow the facts and the law, and render a true verdict.
The senate was as much on trial as trump. And as those senators represent their constituents in each state, the country as a whole was also on trial. We as a nation have a long road back from the hypocrisy, violence, racism of the last four years. As naive as it sounds, a few more “Profiles in Courage” would go along way toward sanity and truthfulness in our country.
We can only hope the real accountability will come in possible criminal or civil prosecution in New York, and now, Fulton County Georgia. That’s where truth, facts, and the law count for something.
As always, solid analysis. Is the current Republican party salvageable? Will we see the birth of a new party based on ideas, not on a personality, for the first time in well over 100 years? If these times were not so painful and frustrating, it would almost be interesting to watch and see what happens.