I watched the entire debate in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, culminating in a 56-44 vote affirming that second impeachment trial of Donald John Trump is constitutional despite that fact that he is no longer the president. It was probably the lowest point for American politics in my lifetime.
There shouldn’t have been a debate on this at all, since it’s obvious that when a sitting president is impeached by the House, the Senate is obligated to hear the case even if the president’s term in office expires before or during the trial.
The issue is whether Trump should be barred from holding any future office of trust, honor or profit. It’s a live issue, as Trump is eligible to run for president again and he could also be appointed to a position in a future Republican administration.
If you watched the legal presentations, you know that the ex-president’s lawyers did not acquit themselves well. But even if they had proved competent, they did not have any available coherent argument to make. The vote was not on Trump’s guilt or innocence, but only on whether it is legal to have a trial at all. Forty-four Republican senators listened to the evidence and then said ‘no.’ This is a deeply depressing outcome.
There are a lot of bad precedents we’re seeing here. For one, this vote strongly presages an acquittal for Trump, likely by an identical or very similar margin. After all, it’s hard to convict someone in a trial after you’ve argued that the trial is illegal. And Trump most definitely should not be acquitted lest future presidents believe they can with impunity set a murderous mob loose on Congress in an effort to overturn a lost election.
But it’s also terrible that the vast majority of Republicans treated the constitutionality question as if it were a partisan procedural vote. This was much more important than that. They just established that it is the Republican Party’s position that a president cannot be denied the right to run for office again even after illegally attempting a coup. This is throwing in with fascism in a very explicit way, and it’s incredibly dangerous.
It’s also offensive. Cowardice is never attractive, but unnecessary cowardice is doubly obnoxious. After all, if a Republican senator is ultimately going to acquit Trump regardless of what their conscience tells them, they’re under no obligation to also vote that the entire trial was illegitimate. Even Mitch McConnell voted this way, and he certainly knows better. He’s on the record saying he wants to hear the evidence before he decides on guilt or innocence, but now he’s flipped to saying no possible evidence could be compelling because Trump cannot be tried.
I’m used to the Republicans making bad faith, dishonest arguments. I’m used to them being scared of their critics on the far right. But this time they were attacked in their place of work while they were trying to fulfill their constitutional duties.
And they still won’t learn anything from this. They don’t conclude they let things go too far. They don’t decide to take the matter seriously. It’s not a surprise, but for me this is a new low.
I think there may actually be no bottom with these folks.
I truly found yesterday depressing. I keep hoping against hope that enough republicans will choose to do the right thing, the thing they KNOW IN THEIR BONES is the right thing for the country, and they are too cowardly or corrupt to do it. If they can’t do this one obvious thing, there is truly no bottom. I would have thought that having Trump’s attorneys show them so little respect yesterday would have flipped a few, but they have no self respect left.
I am disappointed but not surprised. I do think though that you might get a couple of R senators who still illogically will vote to convict beyond those that believe the trial is constitutional. In fact my prediction is McConnell votes to convict.
They have no sacred honor.
The republican Senators need to be leading their party off the cliff of Trumpism–yet choose to push their party over that cliff and take the country with them.
I insist on being furious–have they no honor?
It’s kind of condition for being a Republican these days, the willingness to trade anything for raw power. If a politician shows any sign of courage or conscience, they invite a primary change which they will most likely lose. There have always been opportunists. These days, they congregate in the GOP because it’s become their natural home. If one deviates, there must be a willingness to give up politics. I assume none of us would accept the Faustian bargain that’s required to hold office as a Republican in the Senate today.
For (2), the prior should be that Ds do pretty well in the midterms. We just had the evidence from Georgia. It turns out that one of the advantages of suburban realignment is that suburban ppl vote in midterms moreso than rural ppl. This was proven in 2018, 2020 GA runoffs and will be again in 2022. Pundits dooming about our midterm prospects are the same ppl who gave us zero chance at taking back the senate after November. I suggest everyone recalibrate their priors.