Skating by: The Trump Trials

On Saturday, February 13, 2021, while most of the world was preparing for Valentine’s day, former President Donald J. Trump was being acquitted for a second time after the Senate failed to convict the outgoing President for his involvement in this past winter’s assault of the United States capital.
As previously noted, this was the conclusion of his second impeachment trial which saw the controversial president escape what for many people, is obvious guilt. However, due to a vote of 57-43, Trump was still not convicted, with 67 total votes needed to properly convict him.
Although this did not end how most would have expected, history was still made. Seven Republicans voted alongside the Democrats stating that Trump was in fact guilty for provoking the actions that took place at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, which took the lives of five people, including a police officer who was trying to keep the peace. Still, Trump and his lawyers are claiming that he called for “peaceful and patriotic” protest, though media from both wings of the political spectrum reported otherwise.
The seven Senators that had the courage enough to vote across the party lines are now being sanctioned in their home states, but are still standing strong to their beliefs. Mitch McConnell happens to be one of the Senators who in fact voted to acquit Trump. McConnell became very vocal with the results of the Senate stating, “The Senate’s decision today does not condone anything that happened on or before that terrible day…It simply shows that senators did what the former President failed to do. We put our constitutional duty first.”
With that being said we can only hope that in the near future other Republicans will understand what McConnell and the other Senators are feeling. This by far is not the end of Trump’s trials. He is still under investigation in Georgia and possibly Pennsylvania for charges in relation to the past year’s election.
Though the hopes are high for the remaining Republicans to come to their senses, the truth is Trump brings in a lot of financial support for all Republicans. However, some are starting to realize that money is not everything. In essence, Republicans are playing with what has already been viewed as an uncontrollable person, but the money draw can not be matched. The main goal of the Democrats was to stop Trump from being able to run again, and Republicans may have feared that if this happened funding would cease.
The ongoing impeachment for Trump initially began in 2019 with the charge of abuse of power. He was acquitted during this trial also. Like the old saying goes, the “third time’s a charm.” Hopefully within the next few months Trump will be rightfully convicted. Nonetheless these trials are serving as a distraction from what is really important, which is pandemic relief for the people.