After a rather short trial, Donald Trump was acquitted for the second time during his presidency. In his first trial over a year ago (for his relations with Ukraine), he was surrounded by conservative support with hardly any republicans jumping in to vote against him. This time around was a slightly different story. Less than a month out of office, and already some of his once-supporters took an opposing side in the vote, resulting in a 57-43 count (although still 10 less than the necessary 2/3 majority). Despite being acquitted, the slightly dwindling support from his followers, coupled with his mass social media silencing and a second impeachment, may hint at a change coming to the republican party. Alexander Burns from The New York Times questions how the republicans will react, saying it's not clear what they'll do; "they might go about transforming their party into something other than a vessel for a semiretired demagogue who was repudiated by a majority of voters." That being said, it's still unclear what the future holds for republicans and Trump.
They began the hearing with a motion to debate the constitutionality of trying a president after he was out of office. The motion passed and the trial continued, despite Trump no longer being president. The lawyers were then allowed 16 hours to lay out their case about why they believed Trump was guilty. Their main argument was how he "conditioned" his followers over months to believe that they were being cheated and that the election was corrupt, finally leading up to the attack of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. The lawyers backed up their argument with footage of his backers in grueling fights in the Capitol. Since Trump never did anything to discourage their efforts, the lawyers claimed he was guilty of inciting the riot at the capitol, doing nothing to absolve it.
The opposing side then had 16 hours to argue their side, in which they claimed Trump wasn't given due process, that it was illegal to try a president that was no longer in office, that his language was protected by his first amendment right of free speech. Many politicians tell people to "fight for what they believe in" so Trump's lawyers claimed the terminology he used was allowed. They only used 3 out of their 16 allowed hours to layout their defense. After a back and forth about whether or not to call witnesses, they eventually decided against it. Eventually, there was a vote and Trump was acquitted.
2 comments:
Personal to me the big takeaway from impeachment trail is trump losing the support of republicans within the government. I think that trump losing support will help reshape the republican party away from the extreme placed by trump. The sooner, it moves from the extreme the US will be able to heal.
For me, the outcome of the Senate trial did not come as a surprise, but what was the most frustrating was how most voted along party lines. Going into this trial, just as many had going into the one on Ukraine, people pretty easily predicted he would be acquitted. The Senate was Republican-led during the first trial and now is 50-50, with VP Harris' tie-breaking vote. Analysts and politicians alike, saw the two party balance and thus could virtually call the trial before any arguments. It is annoying that politicians, even at the highest level, will stick to their party rather than listen to the arguments, unbiased. Being completely unbiased is of course impossible, but for the defense lawyers to only use 3 of their 16 hours seems questionable to how much was truly "debated." In such a complex issue, I would have predicted both sides to fully hash out their arguments. It is saddening that the defense felt they did not need to do this and would still have Trump be acquitted. I think the results from both of these Impeachment Trials do give a pretty strong hint to what American politics are and where they are heading: very polarized.
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