Written by Nicholas Fandos
A Senate still bruised by the most violent attack on capitol In two centuries it acquitted former President Donald Trump on Saturday in his second impeachment, as all but a few Republicans, arms closed to dismiss a case that he incited the January 6 riot in a final attempt to cling to power.
Under the watch of National Guard troops still patrolling the historic building, a bipartisan majority voted to find Trump guilty of the only House count of incitement to insurrection. Among them were seven Republicans, more members of a president’s party than have ever delivered an adverse verdict in impeachment.
But with most of Trump’s party rallying around him, the 57-43 tally fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict him and allow the Senate to act to disqualify him from future office.
Among the Republicans who broke ranks to condemn the man who led their party for four tumultuous years, demanding absolute loyalty, were Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney from Utah, Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Patrick Toomey from Pennsylvania.
The verdict abruptly ended the fourth presidential impeachment trial in US history, and the only one in which the defendant had left office prior to trial. But it was unlikely to be the last word for Trump, his divided party and the extensive investigations into the assault.
It only took five days to reach a verdict, partly because Democrats and Republicans were united in their desire to avoid a lengthy procedure and partly because Trump’s allies made it clear before he began that they were not prepared to hold him accountable. Most of the jury of senators had witnessed the events that led to the indictment, having fled for their own lives when the mob approached last month as they assembled to formalize President Joe Biden’s victory.
Party leaders and even the president’s most loyal supporters in the Senate did not defend his actions: a month-long campaign, strewn with electoral lies, to reverse his decisive loss to Biden that culminated when Trump told thousands of his supporters that “They will fight like hell” and they did. Instead, faced with a meticulous case brought by House prosecutors, they found a safe haven in technical arguments that the trial itself was invalid because Trump was no longer in office.
After leaders partly entertained briefly the process to purge Trump from their ranks, Republicans doubled down on a bet made five years ago: that it was better not to stoke another open confrontation with a man millions of his voters still embrace from singular way.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.