Trump will claim exoneration as he starts re-election push
The moment it finally came was greeted with silence. On the Senate floor, members were sitting at their wooden desks facing forwards as the critical numbers were read aloud: 49 ayes, 51 nays.
The vote to hear new witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial had been quashed. With it, the last obstacle standing in the way of acquittal was gone.
While Friday night’s (Saturday NZ time) drama did not formally bring an end to the trial of the 45th US president, it was the moment he knew he was safe in office. Barring a remarkable implosion, Trump will be cleared of the two articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives shortly after 4pm this coming Wednesday.
It will leave him free to challenge for a second term in November’s election. With a booming economy and a Democratic Party deeply divided, few would bet the house against it.
After Friday night’s trial hearing, Chuck Schumer, the leading Democrat, headed straight for the doors and the television cameras beyond, declaring the decision a national ‘‘tragedy’’.
Mitch McConnell, the most senior Republican, remained in place, his face as inscrutable as ever. He knew victory had been secured.
Above them was a vast American eagle depicted in white stained glass. In its left hand was a clutch of arrows; in its right, an olive branch.
Republican senators had saved their president from any further humiliation or embarrassment. But they are no Trump lifers.
Almost none of them endorsed him in their party’s 2016 presidential primary. Their support came late and from political expediency.
So, as the facts of the Ukraine scandal became clear – a president willing to push a foreign power for an investigation of a political rival while holding back almost half a billion dollars in aid – there was discomfort.
But it wasn’t enough to support Democrats in a vote to call John Bolton, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, to testify against his old boss.
A clutch of Republicans, mainly those facing tough reelections or retiring, had momentarily wavered in the week counting down to Friday’s vote. But in the 48 hours leading up to the ballot, the heat was turned up, with Trump excoriating the man who was his top security adviser until five months ago as a warmonger, and Fox News’ nightly hosts raging.
The die was cast when Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a retiree, announced his decision. He would vote no to witnesses. The Democrats had proved their case, Alexander said, in stark contrast to the White House position. Trump had acted in an ‘‘inappropriate’’ way. But his behaviour had not been bad enough to justify kicking him out of office less than a year before an election.
Alexander’s doubts over Trump’s conduct have been echoed by some fellow Republican senators. Nevertheless it is likely Trump will frame acquittal in terms he has used before: ‘‘Total exoneration.’’
That was the mantra he stuck to after the Mueller Report into Russian election meddling detailed a litany of potential obstruction of justice incidents involving the president, but did not bring new criminal charges. Trump, whose ruthlessly effective messaging is one of his most potent political skills, will want his supporters, on whom his reelection later this year depends, to believe his behaviour during the Ukraine saga was ‘‘perfect’’.
A glimpse of the president’s message will come on Tuesday night when he will use his State of the Union speech to tee up the campaign that will run from now until November 3.
While removal from office will still theoretically be hanging over Trump, the final vote will not happen until Wednesday thanks to Democrat delaying tactics, it will be a chance to draw a line in the sand.
The address will revolve around five features of his presidency, according to a senior US administration official: the ‘‘blue collar [economic] boom’’, support for working families, lowering healthcare costs, immigration reform and ‘‘protecting America’s national security’’.
It is by breaking his first term down into tangible outcomes such as these, in particular noting that Americans are richer and with more jobs than were available when he took office, that Trump – seen by his supporters as America’s CEO – hopes to win another four years.
There are some calling for Trump to repeat Bill Clinton’s ‘‘mea culpa’’ moment. The former president was acquitted by the Senate after being impeached in 1998 on charges relating to his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Even if Trump strikes a bipartisan tone in his remarks on Tuesday, it is unlikely to last long. The last two addresses have taught us that.
Instead, the president will be pushing to outdo his predecessor in one critical area.
Clinton never faced another test at the polls after his acquittal. He stepped down once his second term was complete.
Trump wants to go one better than Clinton by doing something no other previous occupant of the Oval Office has done.
Once those senators under the white American eagle vote to acquit him on Wednesday, he hopes to become the first US president to be impeached and win re-election.