US Senate acquits Trump again
The Republican, exonerated of the charge of "incitement to insurrection" against the Capitol thanks to the support of his party
The 57 votes in favor of convicting him, compared to 43 against, fall short of the two-thirds threshold required for a conviction.
Donald J. Trump, acquitted again. The second impeachment trial for the impeachment of the 45th president of the United States ended as the first, with an acquittal that officially frees him from the accusation of inciting the insurrection against the Capitol that occurred on January 6. The support of his Republican colleagues gave him once again a protection that will not serve him, however, against the judgment of history.
After five days of debates, 57 senators found him "guilty" of the charges against him, including seven Republicans; the other 43, all conservatives, declared him "not guilty." Thus, the impeachment with the most support of the two parties in history, but the two-thirds majority necessary to reach a convicting verdict was not reached. From his office in Florida, the former president celebrated his victory: “Our movement (…) to make America great again has only just begun,” he said in a statement.
Once again, the Republicans have saved him but not all want his return. To everyone's surprise, after the vote, Republican leader Mitch McConnell took the floor to say that "there is no doubt that Trump is, morally and de facto, responsible" for the events and did not take steps to "restore order." . "He was happily watching television while chaos prevailed" but in his opinion judging him now was contrary to the Constitution, hence his acquittal, he clarified in an impressive exercise of political contortionism.
Mc Connell assured that, had the trial been held while he was still in office, he would have voted in favor of convicting Trump. But, as Democrats immediately reminded him with outrage, if the Senate did not meet before the presidential replacement to judge him, it was because he prevented it.
Trump: "Our movement (…) to make America great again has only just begun"
Suspense had not been one of the ingredients of the trial so far. Everything indicated that the former president would be acquitted. But yesterday at the beginning of its fifth and final day, the process took an unexpected turn: the Senate approved by 55 votes in favor and 45 against the request of the prosecution to call witnesses to testify.
The subpoena opened the door to a deeper discussion about Trump's attitude to the assault on the Capitol, an insurrection he is accused of having incited and encouraged. The news caught all senators, including Democrats, by surprise. Prosecutors - nine congressmen appointed by the Lower House, who initiated the process - were not expected to announce at the last minute that they wanted to question Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler.
Republican congresswoman accuses Trump of siding with attackers when asked for help
The day before, after the long tug of war between the prosecution and the defense on the extent to which Trump knew that legislators were in danger and the meaning of his messages, Herrera Beutler had published a statement that reaffirmed his statements about the conversation between his head of ranks, Kevin McCarthy, and Trump in full attack. The former president, he maintains, sided with the assailants.
Chaos gripped the Senate. Trump's lawyers and Republicans took it as a declaration of war. They dismissed as "irrelevant" what she had said after the attack and threatened to call "hundreds" of witnesses, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the Lower House, to question her about the lack of security measures in the edifice. The far-right Marjorie Greene referred to her fellow ranks Herrera Buetler as a puppet of the Democrats and warned that "the 75 million followers" of Trump are watching them.
The fifth and final day of the trial began an unexpected turn
In light of historical precedents, the process threatened to drag on for days or weeks beyond schedule, complicating President Joe Biden's plan to negotiate a new bailout plan with the Senate. After several hours of internal discussions, the day took another turn. The prosecution gave up its plans and agreed with the defense to limit itself to including Herrera Buetler's written statement as evidence, instead of calling her to testify. Trump's lawyers would not subpoena any witnesses, either. And so, after having the Senate mounted on a roller coaster for three hours, the parties went on to make their closing arguments.
Congressman Jaime Raskin, in his role as prosecutor, implored senators to find Trump guilty of inciting the historic insurrection. The president not only lit the flames of the insurrection but "did not try to put them out," insisted Raskin, who presented as evidence of the president's intentionality his refusal to help or the attacks on Twitter against his vice president, Mike Pence, during the assault.
Democrats view the trial as an opportunity to fix the grave events in the memory of the United States.
“A president cannot incite an insurrection in his final weeks and walk away as if nothing had happened. But that is the norm that you want to adopt, "warned Republicans another of the prosecutors, Congressman Joe Neguse. As part of the evidence against Trump, Herrera Beutler's statement was read: “When McCarthy finally reached him on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully ask for the protests to stop, the first thing he did was repeat the lie of that the antifastistas had entered the Capitol ”.
McCarthy, according to the notes he took after their conversation, corrected him and told him that the assailants were his sympathizers. "Well, Kevin, I suppose these people are more angry than you are with the elections," replied the president, according to Herrera Beutler, who already in January spoke of this talk with residents in his district and the press to explain his vote in favor. of impeachment.
"There are moments that are above the political interests of the parties that require us to put the country first, because the consequences of not doing so are just too great," Neguse insisted. Democrats saw this process as an opportunity to fix in the memory of the country the serious events of January 6, against the desire of many Republicans to turn the page without delving into its cause or consequences.
Raskin: "The world knows who Donald Trump is. This judgment is on us"
If Congress does not repudiate the role of the former president, the events will be repeated, they say. "This is America? What kind of America are we going to be? She is now literally in her hands. Good luck to the US Senate, ”Raskin concluded. “Our country and the world know who Donald Trump is. This is a judgment on who we are ”as a country.
Trump's defense, for their part, insisted that the fact that some of the participants had planned his actions in advance means that they cannot be held responsible for Trump's speech on January 6. "The act of incitement never happened," defended Michael Van der Veen, who focused his arguments on Trump's right to free expression. "No impartial person" can read his speech and believe that he was encouraging the use of violence, he insisted. Prosecutors "are telling you a political tale" to carry out their "vendetta" against the former president. "Excuse him and defend the Constitution!" Van der Veer pleaded with the senators.
McConnell acquits Trump but considers him "morally responsible"
The number of Republican senators who supported Trump's conviction, seven, was slightly higher than expected: Susan Collins, Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Ben Sasse, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey and, also, Mitt Romney, the only conservative who in in 2020 he voted to convict and remove Trump for abuse of power. Speaking to the press, Pelosi applauded his bravery and condemned the "cowardice" of the majority of conservative senators, especially McConnell, whom he accused of "neglecting responsibilities" for keeping the Senate closed after Trump's impeachment on 13 May. January. His excuses to absolve the former president "are pathetic," said the Democratic leader, the third-largest authority in the North American country.
Following the vote, the Senate was dissolved as a tribunal and immediately declared again in session. Trump acquitted, he did not explore any of the hypothetical actions of punishment that remained, a disqualification vote or a vote of no confidence, as some voices asked the Republicans. Pelosi ruled out this last option, which he considered insufficient given the seriousness of the facts at trial.
Senator McConnell suggested that it is up to the ordinary courts to try Trump. One way or another, the Capitol has once again exonerated the 45th president of the United States. "I am convinced that Donald Trump will be condemned in the court of public opinion, in fact he has already been in the eyes of the American people and in history," said Senate leader Chuck Schumer after the vote. If he ever runs for public office again, "I hope the American people will respond with unequivocal rejection."
