Trump Acquitted for 2nd Time in Impeachment Trial

Former President Donald Trump was acquitted for a second time in his Senate impeachment trial on Saturday, drawing one of the fastest-ever impeachments to an end in the Democratic Senate. He had been impeached by the Democratic House of Representatives after his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection for high crimes and misdemeanors, more specifically, for “incitement of insurrection.”

For only the fourth time in history, a president has been impeached in the House, with half of them accounting for Trump’s impeachments and no president being found guilty and convicted in the Senate so far.

This was the most bipartisan Senate impeachment trial in history, with seven Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in convicting the former president. Before this trial, the only senator to break party lines and vote to convict a president of their own party was Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who was the lone Republican to vote to convict Trump during Trump’s first impeachment. The seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump are:

• Susan Collins of Maine
• Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
• Ben Sasse of Nebraska
• Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
• Mitt Romney of Utah
• Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
• Richard Burr of North Carolina

Although a majority of senators voted to convict the president, the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority to convict an official, meaning that Saturday’s vote was 10 votes short of the needed 67 senators to vote to convict. This was likely written into the Constitution to stop parties from frequently impeaching and removing presidents of the opposing party at will, and to ensure that the impeachment power would not be abused easily.

Of the seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump, the only surprise conviction vote came from Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina. He had previously voted against allowing the impeachment trial to proceed, believing a trial of a former official to be unconstitutional, but he still chose to convict the former president. Burr said that “the evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors,” so he voted to convict. With Burr not running for reelection in 2022, he has nothing to worry about, and so that could be one of the main reasons why he voted to convict.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a retiring Republican from Pennsylvania, had previously voted that the trial was constitutional. Given the fact that he is also retiring, him choosing to convict the former president is not surprising.

Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney of Maine, Alaska, and Utah respectively are all well-known, outspoken critics of Trump, so their votes are not too surprising. In addition, these three senators are known for being fairly bipartisan and moderate, and so it was expected that they would be voting to convict the former president. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is also a critic of Trump, and as such his vote to convict isn’t surprising, either.

The only other Republican senator who recently changed his mind about conviction was Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy, who, after deciding the trial to be unconstitutional last month, changed his mind when the trial began this month and chose to convict on Saturday. He won’t have an election to worry about until 2026, though, and so by then, it is likely people will have already forgotten. Also, Louisiana is a deep-red state, so he will only need to worry about potentially being primaried.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a scathing criticism of Trump, calling Trump’s actions a “dereliction of duty” and that there is “no question that Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of [Jan. 6],” but he still voted to acquit him anyway, claiming that the trial was unconstitutional. More likely, the reason he chose to acquit the president was to try and avoid alienating pro-Trump Republicans and to try and keep the MAGA base with the GOP. However, he said that the criminal justice system could be used to hold Trump accountable in a statement.

It is clear that although most Republicans do believe that Trump was guilty of causing the incitement, many do not have the courage to vote and convict Trump for fear of being primaried by Trump loyalists or antagonizing Trump supporters to make it easy for them to win reelection.

This impeachment trial only took five days from start to end, since it was clear from the get-go that Trump would be acquitted and both parties wanted the trial to end quickly.

Although the Senate did vote to consider witnesses in the trial by a vote of 44-45, the impeachment managers ultimately decided not to call in witnesses. This is likely because calling in witnesses is unlikely to have swayed any Republicans, and there is always the possibility of the witnesses undermining what Democrats believe to be rock-solid proof that Trump was responsible for causing the insurrection. For example, if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was called in as a witness over his phone call with Trump, he could make a case in Trump’s favor rather than in the Democrats’ favor.

Rather, this impeachment served to convince the American people that Trump was, in fact, responsible for the insurrection and provided rock-solid evidence to the American people to win over the public.

Also, despite the fact that Trump was not ultimately convicted, the majority of senators did vote to convict Trump and that, in the Democrats’ eyes, is what matters. Democratic managers, and likely many GOP senators who voted to acquit too (like McConnell), hope that the acquittal will have a long-lasting impact. It represented a significant rebuke of Donald Trump, a man who managed to gather support in unprecedented ways and was able to form a cult-like following within the right.

However, the fact that so many Republicans are still fearful to Trump indicates the power the former president still holds over his party. Despite being out of office and having all his social media megaphones taken away from him, he is still clearly and undeniably the head and dominant force of the right wing, and continues to commend strong approval ratings from many members of the right even after the insurrection.

It remains to be seen, though, as time goes on, how aggressively the GOP will continue to cling to Trump. McConnell has already said that he would defend incumbents targeted by Trump and would lobby against far-right candidates in 2022.

No matter the case, the GOP is increasingly dividing itself up into two factions: the hardcore Trump loyalists and the more traditional conservative; similar to how the GOP was pre-Trump (see Romney and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming). Moderate conservatives have even floated breaking away from the GOP. If the GOP splits into two parties, it would be absolutely devastating for them and would likely lead to Democratic victories all over the country, a topic we will cover in the future.

_{This was a special weekend post due to the breaking news of the acquittal of Donald Trump. Regularly scheduled posts will return shortly.}