The second Senate trial of Donald Trump begins today with Trump’s same threatening shadow over those who might personally and intellectually believe he deserves no sympathy but who are unable to resist his politically-threatening presence. .
If it is improper to impeach and convict someone whose behavior in office so strongly breaches all bounds of propriety after he or she vacates the office, how then can that person be held accountable for his direct or indirect actions? How is justice to be exacted on behalf of the Republic?
Is Lady Justice to be stripped of her scales by the calendar or does she carry them into his or her political afterlife ?
The Senate voted 56-44 yesterday afternoon that Lady Justice is mobile.
We encourage you to watch these events on C-SPAN as much as you can. Stay away from partisan sources. Watch, listen, be informed by an organization that lets you watch, form your own opinions, and decide if justice is done.
There is considerable doubt that enough Republicans will join with Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump. Based on the vote that the proceeding is constitutional, Democrats need to pick up eleven Republican votes to convict.
In truth, conviction would appear to be more likely if these proceedings were done in secret as we observe the strong secret caucus vote of confidence for Representative Lynne Cheney who was facing party punishment for voting to impeach. But the public vote to take away committee appointments from Marjorie Taylor Greene for her outlandish advocacy of numerous debunked conspiracies found few Republicans willing to step up. It is easy to be courageous if those who seek to intimidate you do not know who you are. But courage in public despite a penalty that might be threatened or imposed is rare no matter how much it is justified.
Honor is achieved in the light, not in the darkness.
Should the Senate fail to generate the needed two-thirds vote to convict, the former president might once again proclaim victory. It is a mistake for others to respect that proclamation.
Even if the final vote is 51-50, with the Vice President breaking a tie, the Senate will achieve a majority that Trump never achieved in either of his presidential elections. In 2016 he achieved only 46.1%. In 2020, he achieved only 46.9%.
Forget all of the pap about getting 74-million votes. He lost. By millions of votes. Chris Kobach, whose investigation failed to turn up all the fraudulent votes Trump claimed were against him in 20-16 won’t be able to find fraudulent votes in 2020 either. God knows Rudi Giuliani tried even harder last year than Kobach did in ’16, tried so hard he’s being sued for billions by the companies that made the voting machines.
Let all of the senators regardless of whose side they are on (willingly or fearfully) and all of us listen to and see the evidence from both sides. Our Senators and 98 of their colleagues eventually will vote and we hope they will vote their conscience, not their fear of retribution.
And as we noted in observing Trump’s first trial, a verdict of “not guilty” is not the same as finding him “innocent.” By whatever gauge anyone might use to consider Trump’s behavior, the word “innocent’ cannot be used with validity.
A lot of people who are in jail or are out on bond facing tough charges and hard time will not connect “innocent” to him.
(Incidentally, has anyone heard of Trump calling the families of those who are facing those charges, or calling the families of any of those who were hurt or who have died because of the onsurrection to offer any comfort or, in the case of police officers injured in protecting the building and the people who work in it, any sympathy?)
We shall wait for honor and courage to be displayed by those who sit in judgment of Donald J. Trump.