Former President Donald Trump is twice acquitted by Senate
By Riya Khatod, Copy Editor
On Feb. 13, the Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. 57 senators, including seven Republicans, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Bill Sasse (R-NE) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), voted to convict Trump for inciting an attempted coup against the United States on Jan. 6 and seeking to unlawfully overturn definitive election results in Georgia. The vote held the most bipartisan support for conviction in United States history. However, with 43 not guilty votes, the Senate was unable to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority to convict.
Most Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, disagreed with and publicly criticized Trump’s actions, but did not believe convicting a former president was constitutional.
"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," McConnell said in a press release after receiving scrutiny for his decision to vote not guilty.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had a contradicting opinion on the senators who voted not guilty at the trial.
“What we saw in that Senate today was a cowardly group of Republicans who apparently have no options because they were afraid to defend their job: respect the institution in which they serve,” Pelosi said in a press conference after the Senate’s final vote.
The impeachment trial began on Feb. 9 and only lasted five days, the shortest trial in U.S. history, consisting of the nine impeachment managers from the House of Representatives, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Rep. Joaqin Castro (D-TX), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), arguing that insurrectionists acted upon the words in Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, repeated them as they stormed the Capitol and quoted him in their trials. Trump’s lawyers refuted their claims, explaining that his conviction would threaten freedom of speech, that the Capitol riot was planned before his speech and that the conviction of a former president would be unconstitutional.
Samo student Egan Waktole (’23) was excited about the possibility of Trump becoming the first president to be convicted.
“I was super excited to learn that Trump would be getting impeached once again and hopefully convicted because it led me to believe that some action was going to be taken against him,” Waktole said.
Ava Lowe (’23) was looking forward to the Senate disqualifying Trump from running for federal office ever again.
“Him being convicted would take a huge weight off of some people’s chest. I think he’s a danger to our country and should never be allowed to run for office again, but some high political figures are too cowardly to keep our country safe,” Lowe said.
With a second acquittal under his belt, Trump can plan next steps involving his political career, however, he is not completely clear yet. Forbes estimated that he lost $1 billion in the past year and his fortune will continue to slip further and further as he faces immense legal trouble, including an investigation into his business dealings, sexual assault allegations, an inquiry into the calls he made to Georgia officials in an attempt to overrule certified election results and a Congress investigation by an independant commission into events surrounding the insurrection at the Capitol.
