Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin argues for Trump’s guilt: Video screen shot

By Glynn Wilson –

Political courage was seriously absent in the United States Capitol on Saturday as only seven Republicans could find it in themselves to join 48 Democrats and two independents to find former president Donald Trump guilty of inciting a violent insurrection on January 6, 2021 as Congress affirmed the Electoral College votes to officially certify Joe Biden as president.

After a brief recess late Saturday morning when it appeared the Senate might provide some drama by deciding to delay the trial and call witnesses, the moment passed and closing arguments proceeded and led to a final vote before 4:30 p.m., when a roll call resulted in 57 Senators voting to find Trump guilty as charged, while 43 Republicans voted not guilty. It would have taken a two-thirds vote of 67 Senators to rid the country of any chance of a Trump return to the campaign trail, so now the right-wing fascist insurrection will continue potentially through the 2024 campaign.

While the vote was hailed as “the most bipartisan support for conviction in any of the four impeachments in U.S. history,” by the press in New York and Washington, that comes as small consolation for a majority of people around the country who just wanted to see Trump gone from American politics forever.

Many observers said the House Democrats who managed the prosecution of Trump in the Senate made their case without calling witnesses, while most thought Trump’s defense came off as weak. If the Senate had been able to vote in a secret ballot, the result could have been different.

But in the end, no matter how afraid the Republicans were while hiding from Trump’s insurrectionists on Jan. 6, they are more afraid of what Trump and his followers would do to them at the ballot box in the next election cycle.

Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, the lead Hose manager, pleaded with senators in his closing argument to find Trump guilty for the future of democracy and the safety of the American people.

“If that is not grounds for conviction, if that is not a high crime and misdemeanor against the Republic and the United States of America, then nothing is,” he said. “President Trump must be convicted, for the safety and democracy of our people.”

But it was to no avail. Most Republicans sided with right-wing, racist party politics for the foreseeable future, and that should be the end of them. But with gerrymandering and the support of white, conservative Christians in the South and West, they may remain in power in some states for a little while longer before the demographic shift in the country at large ultimately sweeps them away in a tide of diversity.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had said Trump’s actions were grounds for impeachment the night of the insurrection, could not find the courage to help find the 10 votes needed to convict. He voted not guilty, along with retiring Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, whose influence could also have helped the Senate do the right thing. His legacy is now tainted forever to being simply a pork barrel politician who brings nothing but federal money home to build buildings, many with his name on them.

Seven Republicans voted for Trump’s conviction: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Richard Burr of North Carolina.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, issued a scathing attack on the Republicans on the Senate floor after the trial.

“This was about choosing country over Donald Trump. And 43 Republican members chose Trump,” Schumer said. “It should be a weight on their conscience today. And it shall be a weight on their conscience in the future.”

This was the first presidential impeachment trial in history in which all senators were not only judges and jurors, but witnesses to the constitutional crime that was committed, he said.

“Unable to dispute the case on the merits, the former president’s counsel treated us to partisan vitriol, false equivalents, and outright falsehoods,” he continued. “Essentially, the president’s counsel told the Senate that the Constitution was unconstitutional. Thankfully, the Senate took a firm stance, set a firm precedent with a bipartisan vote in favor of our power to try former officials for acts they committed while in office.”

If President Trump hadn’t told his supporters to march to the Capitol, if he hadn’t implored them to come to Washington on January 6 in the first place, if he hadn’t repeatedly lied to them that the election was stolen, their country was being taken from them, “the attack would not have happened,” Schumer said. “The vast majority of the Senate Republican caucus, including the Republican leader, voted to acquit former President Trump, signing their names in the columns of history alongside his name forever. The failure to convict Donald Trump will live as a vote of infamy in the history of the United States Senate.”

The former president tried to overturn the results of a legitimate election and provoked an assault on our own government, and well over half the Senate Republican conference decided to condone it, he said, calling it the “most despicable act that any president has ever committed and the majority of Republicans cannot summon the courage or the morality to condemn it.”

While President Joe Biden had distanced himself from the impeachment trial and held back from making public comments, after the verdict was issued in the Senate the 46th president released a statement

“Even those opposed to the conviction, like Senate Minority Leader McConnell, believe Donald Trump was guilty of a ‘disgraceful dereliction of duty’ and ‘practically and morally responsible for provoking’ the violence unleashed on the Capitol,” Biden said in a statement by email.

Biden said his thoughts were with “those who bravely stood guard,” those “who lost their lives, all those whose lives were threatened” during the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol and “all those who are still today living with terror they lived through that day.”

“I’m thinking of those who demonstrated the courage to protect the integrity of our democracy — Democrats and Republicans, election officials and judges, elected representatives and poll workers — before and after the election,” he continued. “This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”

“That is how we end this uncivil war and heal the very soul of our nation,” he also said. “That is the task ahead. And it’s a task we must undertake together. As the United States of America.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Greenbelt, Maryland issued a statement after the verdict was announced saying Republicans ignored the facts.

“The House managers presented a clear and compelling case for former President Trump’s responsibility for inciting the violent insurrection that led to multiple deaths and many injuries at the U.S. Capitol on January 6,” he said. “No one who saw their presentation of the abundant evidence that the former President was guilty of incitement for weeks in advance and of failing to do his duty to protect those in the Capitol on that day can reasonably believe that he is not guilty.”

But he charged 43 Republican Senators with ignoring the facts, the truth and failing to uphold their responsibility under the Constitution. It will be on their consciences, he said, “when they voted to allow former President Trump to get away with this horrendous crime.”

“In doing so, they also sent a message to elected leaders who might contemplate inciting political violence and insurrection in the future that there will be no accountability for such actions,” he said. “This trial was a painful and difficult reckoning for the American people and for those of us who were in the Capitol on January 6 performing our duty under the Constitution – Members, staff, press, Capitol Police, security personnel, and essential workers in the building alike.

“While politics prevented the right verdict from being reached, surely history will preserve the accounting of the facts of that day, presented so eloquently and comprehensively by the House managers,” he added. “History and the American people will now be tasked with judging former President Trump’s behavior. I have faith that our people and future generations will have no doubt as to what occurred on January 6 and how heinous a crime was committed by the highest official in our land that day.”