As trump goes on trial again, the senate will be the conscience of america | thearticle

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial before the Senate of the United States begins today. The first, last year, turned on obscure affairs in Ukraine to which most Americans were

indifferent and his acquittal was a foregone conclusion. The charges in the present trial, by contrast, could scarcely be more serious. The former President is alleged to have sought to

overturn his election defeat by pressuring officials to “find” votes. He is further accused of inciting his followers to use violence to stop Congress from ratifying the result. The trial,

which will continue into next week, will decide whether Trump is barred from public office and hence from running again in 2024. Most observers expect that this impeachment, like the first,

will be thwarted by Republican senators. It would require an extraordinary number of defections to produce the two-thirds majority required to convict. Trump’s defence will not only argue

that it is unconstitutional to impeach a former President — an issue on which scholars are divided — but will also deny that the then President ever used illegal or violent means to overturn

the election. While some Republicans senators will doubtless take refuge in the legalistic argument that there is no precedent for impeaching a President after he has left office, most will

decide how to vote on the merits of the case. They will be acutely conscious of the fact that a clear majority of the American public — 56 per cent, according to the latest poll — believes

that Trump should be convicted and disqualified from office. If the Democrats are able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the former President is guilty as charged, the fact that he is

now a private citizen will look like a flimsy pretext to escape justice. Though these senators are well aware that only 15 per cent of registered Republicans want them to convict the man for

whom they voted just three months ago, they also know that they may not be forgiven if an acquittal opens the way for Trump to make a comeback. Such a bid for a second term, against all

convention, might well split their party, thereby ensuring that Joe Biden is succeeded as President by a more radical Democrat in four years’ time. For moderate Republicans, Trump’s second

impeachment may prove to be a moment of truth. Mitch McConnell, their leader in the Senate, last week described Right-wing extremists such as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene as “a

cancer” on the party. These diehard conspiracy theorists make all kinds of claims about the storming of Congress on January 6th, not least that any violence that day was staged by far-Left

Antifa activists. Senators will not, however, have forgotten that they too were targets of the rioters, some of whom were armed and threatened to kill Vice President Mike Pence. For those

Republican senators who are prepared to face down these fanatics in their home states, the trial will turn on how to interpret the words used by the then President Trump when he addressed

the Save America Rally near the White House. What, above all, did he mean when he said: “Fight like hell” or “you’re not going to have a country any more”, not to mention other incendiary

rhetoric? What did he expect to happen when he urged an angry, excitable mob to march on Congress? Why did he take several hours to tell them to disperse peacefully, once it became obvious

that a riot was taking place inside the Capitol? Why did he fail to mobilise the National Guard, leaving that decision to Pence and the Acting Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller? After

all, Trump had not hesitated to do so last summer when Black Lives Matter protests got out of hand. All these questions will weigh heavily on senators. They are not easy questions to answer,

because so much depends not only on the words but also on their context. Trump’s defence team will argue that similarly inflammatory words were used many times last year by Democratic

politicians. Such “whataboutery” may play well with Trump’s base, but it will cut no ice among men and women who feared for their lives at the hands of the Capitol mob only a month ago.

Other politicians are not on trial; Donald Trump is. This week and next, the Senate will be the conscience of America.