The House of Representatives really had no choice but to impeach President Trump for the second time after Trump urged a rampaging mob of his violent supporters to invade the U.S. Capitol and shut down a joint session of the House and Senate. Trump’s motive was to prevent Congress from officially certifying President Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump with the largest vote against re-electing an incumbent president in U.S. history.
The Senate now has no choice but to hold an actual trial this time, one that could convict Trump and bar him from holding office ever again for unleashing the violent, destructive assault on American democracy we all watched live on television. Trump’s actions endangered the life of his own vice president as well as those of the House members who impeached him and the Senators who will serve as the jurors in his trial.
Because Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell refuses to take any action to remove the dangerous president before Biden assumes office, Democrats taking control of the Senate this week are the ones who have to protect democracy from further sedition by Trump and remove from office any other Republicans convicted of lending support to the attack on our government.
The most shocking news since the riot was a demand by Democratic House members for an FBI investigation into their Republican colleagues who led group tours of Congressional offices the day before the attack. Public tours had been shut down since March because of the pandemic. A member with training in military security compared the tours to reconnaissance missions to locate targets to be attacked. Some groups shown around were identified as participants in the Capitol assault the following day.
Murder and Hostage-Taking
It seems unconscionable any elected official, regardless of party, would have aided the lawless, anti-government mob. Fired up by Trump’s speech beforehand, the participants were described in FBI reports as threatening to murder or take as hostages well-known figures in both parties including Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or any other member of Congress they encountered. Pence, who praised to the point of embarrassment Trump’s every action for four years, suddenly rose to the top of the mob’s hit list after he announced he could not openly violate the U.S. Constitution by refusing to certify Biden’s lawful election. Angry protesters set up a gallows outside the Capitol and carried a rope with a noose inside shouting: “Hang Mike Pence!” Later reports said rioters charging upstairs to the Senate just missed running directly into Pence with his wife and daughter before the Secret Service hustled them into a locked office less than 100 feet away.
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Trump has now received half of all the impeachments in American history. After Trump encouraged the violent insurrection, his second impeachment drew 10 Republican House votes including Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney from a Republican royal family. That number was both the most in history and embarrassingly small after the horrific attack. With Democrats holding the bare minimum of 50 seats to control the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris voting to break ties, is there any serious possibility 17 Republican Senators would vote to convict Trump to reach the required two-thirds majority?
It won’t be easy, but here’s why it’s not out of the question. That armed, violent mob of crazed, dangerous Trump supporters really did threaten the lives of Republicans and Democrats alike. For four years, cowardly Republican politicians have lived in fear of Trump supporting more extreme opponents to defeat them in Republican primaries. For good reason now they have far greater fears. The most powerful testimony during the impeachment came from House members describing Republican colleagues breaking down in tears admitting they were afraid to vote for impeachment because of the danger to themselves and their families from Trump’s supporters.
There are plenty of reasons to doubt McConnell’s sincerity in saying he hasn’t made up his mind yet whether to convict Trump. McConnell will do everything he can to obstruct Biden to try to return Republicans to power. But McConnell also made himself a target of the ugliest elements Trump attracted to the party by refuting one of Trump’s most preposterous lies that he defeated Biden by a landslide. “This election actually was not unusually close,” McConnell told the Senate. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.”
The truth is Republicans will have difficulty ever becoming a major party again unless they rid themselves of the virulent racists and dangerous, violent extremists Trump attracted that repel decent American voters of all races. Barring Trump from running again is not only well-deserved. It would be a welcome relief for plenty of elected Republicans who have now witnessed exactly how dangerous and unAmerican Trump’s most rabid supporters really are.
