Trump acquitted, Senate votes he did not incite violence
After a five-day impeachment hearing in the Senate, the lawmakers voted that former President Donald Trump was not directly at fault for the violence seen Jan. 6 at the Capitol riots. WikiCommons
Americans spent the past week on the couch, eyes glued to the TV, watching former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial — a never-before-seen moment in history. As their eyes glaze over and they start nodding off, a thought creeps into their mind: How did we get here?
The U.S. Senate voted Feb. 13 against conviction for Trump, with 43 “not guilty” votes and 57 “guilty” votes — 10 short of conviction — after the five days of hearings. This vote means that Trump is eligible to run for federal office again in the future, as a conviction would have barred him from doing so.
A two-thirds majority is required for conviction, meaning all Democrats and 17 Republicans needed to vote to convict Trump. Although seven Republicans did so, marking the most bipartisan vote seen in an impeachment trial ever, the push to remove Trump from holding office again came up short.
On the first day of the trial Feb. 9, the Senate voted that the trial was constitutional, despite arguments from Trump’s lawyers and other Republican loyalists that contested the opposite. However, six Republican Senators voted to proceed with the impeachment trial, bringing the total number of those in favor of the trial to 56-44.
“Trump has disqualified himself from being a significant influence on the Republican Party,” said Thomas Campbell, a Chapman University law professor who served in the U.S. House of Representatives (R-CA) from 1989 to 1993 and 1995 to 2001. “We saw that in the (first day’s) vote of six Republican Senators … Trump’s ability to intimidate Republicans evaporated almost entirely on Jan. 6.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the lead House impeachment manager, opened the first day’s presentation with video footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol protest and riot. The video was spliced with Trump's speech earlier that day prior to the riots, showing the crowd's reaction to Trump as he urged them to head to the Capitol.
“Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy,” Trump said to his followers Jan. 6. “I'll be there with you ... We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women — and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.”
Democrats spent the second day of the Senate trial describing the gravity of the Jan. 6 security breach at the Capitol, explaining how former Vice President Mike Pence and other lawmakers narrowly escaped coming face-to-face with rioters intent on stopping Congress from conducting a final count of the Electoral College results. House impeachment managers showed newly-released security footage from the Capitol riot — including clips of Pence and senators being rushed to safety to evade the mob.
“It is absolutely obvious that the president committed a high crime and misdemeanor when he led a months-long effort — from November to January — to overturn the election results,” said Fred Smoller, a Chapman campaigns and elections professor. “I consider it the greatest attack on the United States Constitutional democracy since the Civil War. If the Senate is unwilling to defend itself, then they’re worthless.”
The third day of the trial, the impeachment managers focused on drawing a connection between Trump’s speech on the Ellipse and the subsequent violence that followed. Rioters themselves declared they were “listening to Trump” when confronting Washington, D.C., law enforcement. As the trial progressed over five days, members of Congress reiterated the need for accountability and fear of consequences if action was not taken against the former president, given anti-government and inciting rhetoric.
Trump’s lawyers opened and closed their impeachment defense in a span of three hours on Friday, the fourth day of the trial. They called the House’s charge against Trump a “preposterous and monstrous lie.” They argued that, although the Capitol riots were just as bad and violent as the House managers expressed, it was not directly tied to Trump, and he cannot be held accountable.
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said to his followers Jan. 6.
David Schoen, one of Trump’s defense lawyers, went as far to say that House managers “manipulated evidence and selectively edited footage.”
The Senate voted Saturday, the fifth and final day of Trump’s impeachment trial, to acquit Trump, granting him the ability to potentially run for president again in the future. The vote comes after the Senate decided not to call witnesses.
Smoller and Campbell both said that Trump’s legacy and reputation continuing as presently constructed will cause chaos within the Republican Party, as anti-Trump Republicans try to further themselves from the “party of Trump.”
“The Republican Party is in very bad shape, and it could in fact collapse,” Smoller said. “It seemed to have been overtaken by the party of Trump, and that makes it a new political party … (Since) they (didn’t) get the votes to convict Trump, he will roam again with his own new party.”