WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s first indictment, aimed at a call that Americans have never heard from a country leader far away. The trial continued for two weeks after he said. There was a mountain of evidence to walk over, but not a single drop of blood to see.
Trump’s second indictment was a steroid prosecution aimed at the anger, violence and anxiety of one day in Washington. There was nothing strange or far to it. There was blood.
Along with these trials, a year apart talked about the president’s unique ability to get in and out of trouble – the story of Trump’s life. The only president arrested twice escaped repercussions, though this time a loser of the election, at least for the time being, moved away from the playing field.
In a broad stance against Trump, just as cruel as the Democrats, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared the former president “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day” with his “unscrupulous behavior” and “shameful dereliction of duty.”
“The leader of the free world cannot thunder for two weeks that shadow forces are stealing our land and then being surprised when people believe them and do reckless things,” McConnell said.
But that was after he gave Trump an escape hatch for centuries and voted to acquit him on the grounds that the Senate, he said, could not legally try a president out of office.
Until the conclusion of the five-day trial, the noisiest man in America remained silent in Florida. But the panicked, terrified whisper of officials hiding from their attackers, and the crack of a fatal gunshot that played out on a large screen in the Senate chamber, had permeated the Trump flag-waving insurgents less than six weeks earlier. .
This time, the case does not hang in the balance of the national security bureaucracy.
It was an accusation driven by what people saw happening and by Trump’s hefty public rhetoric, which was heard that day, weeks before and after – until Twitter banned him and made his lawyers and supporters talk while the trial took place.
“We saw it, we heard it, we lived it,” Democratic majority leader Senator Chuck Schumer said. “This was the first presidential indictment in history in which all senators were not only judges and magistrates but also witnesses of the constitutional crime committed.”
Trump’s flashy fame five years ago that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York and still be loved by his followers was, of course, never put to the test in his presidency. But something like that was on Pennsylvania Avenue.
On January 6, he sends his followers down that street to the Capitol, where they are committing their chaos. In the end, it did not cost him the loyalty of enough supporters in Congress to convict him of the charge of inciting an uprising.
The Senate acquitted Trump in a 57-43 vote Saturday, much less than the 67 needed to convict him.
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2020
“Sorry haters, I’m not going anywhere,” Trump declared after his Senate acquittal on February 5, 2020, on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. The Senate, then under close Republican control, voted 52-48 to remove him from abuse of power and 53-47 to remove him from obstruction.
It took the Democrats about four months to get to that point, through congressional inquiries into Trump’s attempt to persuade Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s business there. The aim was to slander Joe Biden, the father, as he sought the Democratic nomination and the presidency.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid that Ukraine needs in its conflict with Russia hang on the scales. The power and resources of the U.S. government have been harnessed from Trump’s personal political advantage, Democrats said.
For many Republicans in Congress, the Democrats only accused Trump of being Trump. For others, Trump’s behavior, while disturbing, did not rise to the extraordinary level they felt was necessary to try to remove a president between elections.
“I want you to do us a favor,” Trump told Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He pronounced the sentence that appeared to be from a rough transcript of their phone call and came to symbolize the hard-working lobbying work by the president and his assistants.
Trump unleashed more than 270 tweets when his fate was in the hands of the Senate, and many attacked the process and the participants. “Our case against lyin ‘, cheatin’, ‘Adam’ Shifty ‘Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, and the whole Radical Left, Do Nothing Democratic Party, starts today, Said one.
The verdict comes strictly along biased lines, with one exception. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah voted with Democrats to convict Trump of abusing power.
McConnell, fully in agreement with the president on this, was ready to go on. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s in the rearview mirror,” he said in response to Trump’s acquittal.
So it was for just about everyone. In the last days of the trial, the US declared a public health emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has already spread, and the first COVID-19 death was recorded in the country by the end of the month.
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2021
Trump was unequivocal during accusation no. 2, blocked from his main social media platforms for his history of false statements and conspiracy theories about the election. He remained low and also no longer showed up for his interviews with conservatives on TV.
As in the first indictment, no witnesses were called.
The House Democratic indictment leaders came up with a new and graphic video of the assault and a clearer picture of how close the lawmakers trapped at the Capitol were to the attackers who were looking at them. The danger to Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, who is chairing the Senate during the day’s election certification, has also been sharpened.
If there was anything like a smoke gun, it was shot in the eye.
But there was little more tension over the outcome than for the Ukraine case. Democrats never expected to win the required two-thirds of the vote. Seven Republicans eventually voted with the Democrats, more than expected, but not enough. Romney was among them.
It was announced on the last day that McConnell would vote to speak out.
It was not known that he would condemn Trump with such scathing words, even as he passed the hot potato on to the Department of Justice or Attorney General, noting that Trump, the private citizen, is now exposed to criminal and civilian laws.
“He didn’t get away with anything,” McConnell said. “Train.”