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If The Senate Trial Doesn’t Blow Up The GOP’s Big Lie — Democracy Is Doomed
It’s about more than just the impeachment of Trump
Republicans are arguing today that impeaching Donald Trump after he has left office is unconstitutional and makes no sense…because he’s left office.
This just proves that they’re operating in the interest of politics rather than the United States, and a couple of simple data points blow their argument all to hell.
First, Donald Trump was in office when he was impeached, and the House tried to send the impeachment to the Senate for trial while Trump was still president. Mitch McConnell refused to accept the referral then, saying he wouldn’t hold the trial until the day after Trump left office.
Now McConnell is saying that because Trump has left office the trial shouldn’t happen at all, a situation himself himself set up!
That is such a clear demonstration of bad faith, of cynical manipulation, of politicians unwilling to do what’s best for our nation, that it’s laughable…and tragic.
That the Republicans in the Senate are even making such an argument should shock Americans.
It definitely demonstrates that most Republicans in the Senate would rather throw in with a fascist cult leader than with the bedrock principles of the Constitution and the needs of the American people, who were largely ignored while almost a half-million of us died unnecessarily in a pandemic that Donald Trump out of laziness, stupidity or malice totally botched.
And impeachment is about more than just removal from office: it’s about justice, accountability and deterrence of future criminality or treason in the White House.
Second, the trail being held in the Senate this week will determine if the crimes that Donald Trump committed while he was in office are so egregious that he should be officially identified as a criminal and barred from holding future political office.
Let’s be clear: Donald Trump created a Big Lie, saying that he actually won an election that he lost by over 7 million votes, because, he said, of “voter fraud,” based on the Big Lie of voter fraud that the GOP has been pushing for 40 years.
