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Democrats took an unsafe bet because of the predictable outcome. In the end, they seemed to have been taken by surprise by the events themselves. Much later it will become clear whether the entire exercise hurts or benefits Trump.
The US Senate is voting against convicting former President Donald Trump. 67 votes would have been necessary for a guilty verdict, 57 in the end.
The fastest impeachment trial in US history came to an inglorious end on Saturday afternoon (local time) in Washington. After a chaotic final phase, in which the Senate approved for the first time the motion of those in charge of the democratic impeachment (indictment) to subpoena witnesses, but the prosecution later withdrew this motion, obviously under political pressure from his own party, only 57 of the 100 senators spoke. a guilty verdict on former President Donald Trump for inciting a riot, while a two-thirds majority would have required 67 votes.
Seven Republican Dissidents
In the end, it was only seven of the 50 Republicans who wanted to openly oppose their former President Donald Trump and his supporters in his party in the US Senate. They were Richard Burr (North Carolina), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Nebraska) and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania). It is the highest number of Republican dissidents in the Senate to date. In the House of Representatives, 10 of 211 Republicans had voted for Trump’s impeachment.
The fact that the other Trumps were not found guilty has less to do with the fact that they really wanted to defend themselves from the former president-elect. Rather, the reason is that, on the one hand, they don’t want to allow the Democrats to win the first successful impeachment trial of an American president. On the other hand, the fight in the Republican Party for the future course has not been decided at all.
The fear that the whole process will end as a sham has somehow come true. The political will of the Democrats to give impeachment the necessary space and weight was not strong from the start. From the start, he threatened to steal the show from President Joe Biden’s ambitious agenda. The aid package to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, immigration reform, the long-awaited investment drive in the outdated and crumbling infrastructure, were and are the priorities of the White House, with which the Democratic president is presenting himself to the electorate wants to recommend.
When fast becomes too fast
That fast can sometimes mean that it became apparent too quickly on the last day of the Senate hearing. A piece of information from Republican Congressman Jaime Herrera Beutler, who had been known for a month, suddenly became decisive evidence according to the will of the prosecution.
It is about a telephone conversation between Trump and the leader of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on Epiphany, when Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol. According to Beutler, who relies on the information from McCarthy’s mouth, the latter is said to have implored Trump to immediately and emphatically whistle at the mob due to the impending danger. Trump is said to have first claimed that the mafia was run by left-wing extremists. McCarthy’s opposition, who insisted they were Trump supporters, are said to have acknowledged the former president with the following words: “Well, Kevin, these people are probably a little more upset about the election than you are.”
Chaos around the question of witnesses
This, the prosecution said, clearly shows that Trump was sympathetic to the mob and its actions. So I wanted to call Beutler as a witness. Surprisingly, some Republicans joined the motion to hear from witnesses, including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He made it clear on Twitter what he intended with the maneuver.
However, if the body wants witnesses, I will insist that we have multiple witnesses.
– Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 13, 2021
He wanted the defense to call witnesses, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. You should ask yourself if there is credible evidence of the possibility of an outbreak of violence.
If President Pelosi, due to optics, turned down the Capitol Hill Police requests for additional resources such as the National Guard?
– Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 13, 2021
Evidently such evidence existed, which would reinforce the argument for Trump’s defense. With a series of quotes they tried to show, among other things, that Trump’s speech in front of the White House on Epiphany was not the trigger for the violent storm.
Apparently, in the hours after the convocation vote, Democrats realized they were on black ice. The witness trial could easily take months and stifle the optimistic start to Biden’s presidency. In addition, Republicans could cannibalize information that would not really be in the interest of Democrats: for example, that various Democratic politicians, from Pelosi to the mayor of Washington, did not want to approve a martial appearance deployment of the security forces for political reasons, because such a march on the stage last summer during the riots over police violence against blacks.
The prosecution then shockingly withdrew its request to hear witnesses and, in another 180-degree U-turn, cleared the way for final arguments and a vote on guilt or acquittal.
The result will only be known much later
No one could seriously doubt the acquittal for lack of Republican votes. On Saturday morning, Senate Grand Old Party minority leader Mitch McConnell had cleared up the last bit of uncertainty and told his counterparts that he would vote for an acquittal.
This was consistent to the extent that he, along with the overwhelming majority of Republicans, had already expressed that they did not consider impeachment of a president who is no longer in office permissible. McConnell made clear in a tabloid speech after the Senate vote that he held Trump “practically and morally responsible for the uprising on Capitol Hill.” This is the clearest distancing of this old fox from Trump yet.
Democrats had decided to stage the unprecedented second impeachment trial of a president despite the slim chance of a guilty verdict. Something else weighs more in your calculation. They hope the detailed and vivid memories of the mafia on Capitol Hill, the ugly campaign of lies by Trump and his months-long supporters, and the countless bizarre attempts to overturn the outcome of a democratically lost election, will have a lasting effect. . Effect on the most important spectators: on the voters. However, it will only become clear in the coming months and years if this will work.
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