To Impeach or Not Impeach

The Rise and Fall of American Presidents

The people -- the people -- are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts -- not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it. Abraham Lincoln

The impeachment trial in the American Senate had been playing out all week and, when I heard on the lunchtime news that a decision was imminent, I switched over to CNN to watch the vote on the impeachment of former President Trump. I had not seen much of the trial over the previous four days and wanted to see how the Senate conducted itself in taking such a momentous decision. Here was the chance to follow another of Lincoln's maxims. 'The ballot is stronger than the bullet.'

It was expected that the Senate would fail to get a two-thirds majority to impeach the President and therefore reject the evidence of the attack on Congress by the MAGA mob. I was surprised therefore to find that the Senate had voted to subpoena witnesses following a CNN report that a Republican Senator, Jaime Herrera Beutler, had released details of a heated conversation between the former President and the Republican Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy had called then-President Trump on 6 January and asked him to call off the riot. Trump had replied that it was Antifa that had breached the Capitol and then contradicted himself by saying "Well. Kevin, I guess that these people are more upset about the election than you are." It seemed very likely that if Senator Beutler gave evidence the Republican Leader would have to confirm or otherwise the veracity of her description of events.

After a 2 hour break for negotiations between the parties to decide how to proceed, it was a travesty that the Democrats merely agreed to put this statement on record. They did not insist on hearing from any witnesses. The Presiding Officer, Senator Patrick Leahy, who had taken on the responsibility of chairing the trial after the Chief Justice declined to preside because Trump was no longer president, was perplexed and confused by the procedures. The five clerks advising him were like headless chickens and seemed unable to provide him with clear advice. The Democratic party managers had decided to throw in the towel rather than pursue a series of witness interrogations? These would undoubtedly have put Kevin McCarthy in the unenviable position of having to authenticate his conversation with ex-President Trump on 6 January.

Why was this, were they really so determined to get away on their week's holiday - apparently planes were already booked for the exodus? The other reason speculated was that it would take too much time to call and prepare witnesses and this would disrupt the Senate when it needed to focus on President Biden's agenda to get America moving again. Whatever had been the reason, it certainly wasn't a determination to unearth the real facts, admittedly a rare commodity in the time of Trump. 

The final act was to hear the summing up of the trial. The Democrat's Lead Manager, Jamie Rankin, and his team argued that Trump had incited the insurrection and had failed to care about the safety of Senators as was evident in the former President's words to Kevin McCarthy. Michael van der Veen made a preposterous defence, arguing that nothing Trump said "could ever be construed as encouraging or sanctioning an insurrection," and that it was part of an "unhinged pursuit of a long-standing political vendetta against Trump."

The vote for guilty was 57 to 43, well short of the two-thirds majority required for impeachment. Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who had voted against impeachment then made a speech that accused former President Trump of "a disgraceful dereliction of duty." "There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for the events of that day." Too late Mitch, you had already hitched your wagon to the opposite view. The whole episode in the Senate seemed mired in hypocrisy. Here is the evidence of why the self-proclaimed "great" American Constitution has not been copied by any other democratic nation. 

It was left to Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Susan Collins to remind fellow Senators that "the Constitution is more important than any one person" and that Trump had "incited an insurrection with the purpose of preventing the transfer of power from occurring." Abraham Lincoln would have approved of their summary but he would have been very disappointed in the decision of the Senate to deny the people the real facts.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. 

"I think Abraham Lincoln said that" Bob Dylan