From News Nation:
“Senate
acquits former President Donald Trump in second impeachment trial”
The Senate
voted 57-43, acquitting former President Donald Trump on the single charge of
inciting an insurrection. 7 Republican senators joined all Democrats in voting
in favor of convicting the former president, failing to reach the 67 votes
needed to achieve the necessary two-thirds supermajority. 43 Republican
senators voted to acquit Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection by
supporters who stormed the seat of Congress in Washington to stop lawmakers
from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory, resulting in
the deaths of five people, including a police officer. Earlier Saturday,
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues he would vote to
acquit Trump.
The vote comes
after a nearly weeklong impeachment trial, which began Tuesday with opening
arguments from both sides and a vote ruling it is constitutional to try a
former president once out of office. In
arguments this week, Democratic House impeachment managers showed videos and
shared tweets they said made clear Trump set the stage for the violence by
falsely claiming the election results were fraudulent and egging on his
supporters with his rhetoric long before Jan. 6. They said he summoned the mob
to Washington, gave the crowd its marching orders and did nothing to stop the
violence as it played out on television. His one request to act peacefully did
not absolve him, they said. In addition to graphic, never before seen security
footage from the moment the rioters broke through windows and entered the
Capitol in a purported attempt to overturn the election results, they also
showed videos of the Republican former president cheering violence at his
rallies, repeating his election fraud claims and urging his supporters to
gather in Washington on Jan. 6 for a rally he said would be “wild.”
The
Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump on Jan. 13 on a single
charge of inciting insurrection, focusing on a speech he made to supporters
shortly before the D.C. riot. Trump’s defense argued the former president was
entitled to dispute the 2020 election results and that his doing so, including
in the speech that preceded the breach of the Capitol, did not equate to
inciting the violence that followed. Trump’s lawyers argued that his remarks
were protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures
the right to free speech. “To claim that the president in any way wished,
desired or encouraged lawless or violent behavior is a preposterous and
monstrous lie,” said Michael van der Veen, one of Trump’s lawyers. Van der Veen
said there was a double standard at the heart of the prosecution’s case,
arguing that some Democrats had “encouraged and endorsed” violence that erupted
at some anti-racism protests across the United States last summer without
facing any legal consequences. The defense contended the siege was carried out
by people who had “hijacked” for their own purposes what was supposed to be a
peaceful event and had made plans for violence before Trump had even spoken on
Jan. 6. “You can’t incite what was going to happen,” Van der Veen said. Trump’s defense team also portrayed the
impeachment trial as little more than the result of a political witch hunt by
Democrats who had been trying to get Trump for four years.
^ While it is
not surprising that the Republicans voted to acquit Trump it is still sad to
know that 43 Senators officially put their Party loyalties over their loyalty to
their country. They put Trump over the United States and that is a dark stain
that will forever haunt the US and the Republican Party. Trump DID incite
violence both before and on January 6, 2021 using his actions and his own words
to call for the Coup Attempt. Free Speech never covers words that call for
violence and yet the Republican Senators have agreed that it does and by doing
so any future Coup Attempts will be their doing. They put aside the facts and with that have forever aletered 245 years of American Democracy. The USA will overcome this and become stronger despite those 43. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.