The overwhelming majority of Republican senators voted against impeachment, showing that Donald Trump still has influence in the party
The Democrats have initiated impeachment proceedings against Trump for the second time after protests outside the US Congress. Under the pretext that the 45th president incited the protesters to storm the Capitol, they wanted to deprive him of the right to hold public office.
From the very beginning, the adventure looked like an act of political retaliation, which ultimately failed. For the indictment, votes of at least 67 out of 100 senators were required. Only 57 voted in support of impeachment, including just 7 Republicans.
Conservatives have sided with Trump, although America’s liberal press has argued in recent weeks that the ex-president has been virtually written off. It is noteworthy that all this time, Republican politicians regularly visited Trump’s villa, counting on his support, and not offering their own.
The defeat of the Democrats has already been commented on by Joe Biden. According to him, 7 Republicans who opposed Trump is already an achievement. Otherwise, he admitted that the adventure had failed.
“This sad chapter in our history reminded us that democracy is fragile”, – the president said.
“That she always needs to be protected. That we must always be vigilant. This 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 destroy the lies”.
What will such an outcome lead to? Earlier it was reported that a group of Republicans are discussing the creation of their own center-right party. The idea is supported by politicians who have held elective positions in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as Donald Trump himself.
At the moment, this peculiar act of desertion looks dubious and unlikely. In any case, the Republican Party found itself in a paradoxical position.
“It’s hard to imagine Republicans winning national elections without Trump supporters anytime soon”, – said Republican political strategist Alex Conant.
“The party is facing real catch 22: it cannot win with Trump, but it is clear that it cannot win without him”.
Americans will vote in the midterm congressional elections in 2022, and the presidential elections will be held in 2024. Trump is considered the most likely Republican presidential nominee, although he has yet to announce his long-term political plans.
“Whether or not he races again is up to him, but he will continue to have a huge impact on both the direction of policy and the assessment of who is the serious standard-bearer of this message”, – political consultant, name which is not called.
“You can call him a gray eminence or whatever”.
It is also worth noting that impeachment was once rare in the United States, but has become increasingly used in the context of the political polarization of recent decades. Since 209 years after George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789, impeachment has been carried out only once. But since 1998, the process has been initiated three times against Bill Clinton and Trump. Richard Nixon, who was presented for impeachment in 1974, resigned before the case got under way.
The exploitation of impeachment has serious negative effects. In an attempt to remove Trump a second time, Democrats insisted on barring him from holding public office. Based on this logic, Congress has the right to delve into the history of any politician and, by voting, add him to a kind of black list.
The fact is that in the United States, the States have not yet had a case when the parliament voted simply to disqualify a former official, Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School, explains in a comment for Newsweek.
“In general, they argue that any former official can be impeached and denied the right to hold office in the future, no matter how long ago he or she committed impeachment offenses”, – he says.
Evgeniy Gaman, specially for News Front