Donald Trump: Impeached twice, acquitted again

Donald Trump, the 45th president of the USA, made history again not just as the only president who was impeached twice but also as the one acquitted twice. Acquitted not because he was innocent, but because the Republicans had the numbers. And we know that impeachment isn’t really a judicial trial but a political game.

Both Democrats and Republicans did claim victory out of such an exercise. The Democrats succeeded in besmirching Trump's character again, and thus eroded his viability to run again in 2024. The Republicans counter that the Constitution forbids them to impeach a former president. Others think the vast majority of their partymates both in the House and in the Senate are still behind Trump, which means Trump can still be a formidable presidential bet in the next national election. Trump doesn’t hide his aspiration to go back to the White House. If successful, he will follow the record of Grover Cleveland, a Democrat who established the record as the 22nd (1885-1889) and the 24th US president (1893-1897). Cleveland was defeated by President Benjamin Harrison who became the 23rd president in the elections of 1890. He came back with a vengeance. Trump wants to duplicate that feat.

The second impeachment of Trump, on the serious charge of inciting insurrection for the assault against the Capitol, was approved by the House, controlled by the Democrats, by a vote of 232 to impeach, and 197 not to impeach. So, for the record, Trump was already impeached for the second time. Ten Republicans joined the 222 Democrats in the Lower House headed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California to seal the articles of impeachment. The Republican congressmen who impeached Trump were John Katko of New York, Liz Cheney (daughter of the late Dick Cheney, vice president of George W. Bush), Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan, Jaime Beutler of Washington, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Anthony Olin of Ohio, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Tom Rice of South Carolina, and David Valadao of California. All the 222 House Democrats voted to impeach Trump.

In the Senate, all 50 Democrat senators voted to convict, and were joined by seven brave Republicans who crossed party lines and voted to convict Trump. They were senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. This is quite unprecedented and quite unexpected because two of them earlier voted that it was unconstitutional to impeach a president when his term already expired. This development indicates that the Republican Party is quite divided now between the Trump faction and another composed of anti-Trump Republicans. This will be a very big blow for incumbent senators and congressmen in the mid-term elections in 2022. Mitch McConnell, now Senate minority leader, also declared that Trump can stand criminal prosecution for his role in the riot.

The second impeachment of Trump was more damaging to whatever remains of his political ambitions because it etched in US history that he is the kind of a traditional politician who would do everything and anything to give undue advantage to himself and his political supporters, even if some of their actuations border on the illegal, immoral, and unbecoming of a leader and a statesman. It should be recalled that his first impeachment was for abuse of power and for obstruction of justice after allegedly pressuring Ukraine to provide him some incriminating evidence against Joe Biden. Trump was charged with using US aid to Ukraine as a bargaining chip for the continuance of aid there. He was impeached by the House by a vote of 230 against 197. In the Senate, which was then controlled by Republicans, Trump was acquitted 52 to 48.

We should always remember that Trump was impeached twice and acquitted twice too. The second time he was acquitted was because the US Constitution requires two-thirds vote or 67 out of 100 senators to convict. Only 50 Democrats and seven Republicans voted to convict. They needed 10 more. There were 43 Republicans who believed the Constitution doesn’t allow them to impeach a president whose term already expired. Their votes didn’t mean they love Trump, much less think Trump is innocent. They were only saying they couldn’t legally vote for conviction. Thus, Trump was acquitted by technicality. He shouldn’t be proud of it at all.