Shameless votes to acquit Trump make this a shameful Presidents Day
On this holiday on which Americans pay tribute to two presidents who loom large in the creation — and then the continued unity — of this nation, it’s a disgrace that Florida’s representatives in the U.S. Senate have, for more than four years, continually, slavishly, backed a president who actively sought to tear it apart.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were not perfect men — they enslaved people, after all, and endorsed Congressional efforts to protect that repulsive institution.
Still, Washington was a warrior for this nation’s independence from just the kind of autocratic rule that Donald Trump promulgated. He rode herd over the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the U.S. Constitution — the same enduring document that almost didn’t survive Trump’s trampling in his pursuit to stay in power even if it meant a House speaker or vice president had to be killed.
Lincoln died while fighting the Confederacy’s insurrection, when it fired on Fort Sumter, and the “anarchy” of Southern states’ secession.
It was no real surprise that Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted to acquit Trump on Feb. 13 after his impeachment trial in the Senate. It’s just a disappointment that these two men who never fail to launch, rightly, full-throated rants — against the antidemocratic regimes in Cuba and Venezuela — expressed little but anger that their colleagues sought to avoid the same sorry fate in this country.
They have shown us, to quote another towering American, the content of their character. And there’s something missing.
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford, William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet, Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Fastenal Ford, and David Ragan, driver of the No. 36 Select Blinds Ford, are involved in a 16-car crash on the 14th lap of the Daytona 500. The race was delayed for more than five hours because of rain.