In the end, Trump must pay
Donald Trump is now the only U.S. president to be impeached twice. But will he ever be convicted for inciting the Capitol riots?
I doubt it.
For now, let’s take solace in the fact that Trump will wrap up his tumultuous presidency by being formally impeached for allegedly inciting an insurrection.
Only 10 Republicans had the guts to join fellow House Democrats and send a resounding message that nobody — not even the president of the United States — is above the law.
Trump didn’t immediately comment and up to the last minute, he and the insurrectionists kept gaslighting their mob.
It’s astonishing how most Republicans remained faithful to Trump, who kept bullying them against impeaching and punishing him to avoid further violence. Those threats came amid FBI warnings of armed protests across the nation leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
On Wednesday, the White House released a statement that Trump wants no violence. But still the president took no responsibility for the Jan. 6 revolt that left five people dead.
And it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Republican-controlled Senate won’t convict him — even as The New York Times reported that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell believes the president “committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him.”
McConnell just wanted House Democrats to impeach Trump so it would make it easier for the GOP to break ties with the president — without them actually convicting him.
Just a day earlier, another Republican leader, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, was calling to let Trump off the hook in the name of unity.
“I’m disappointed to hear the House is proceeding with a second impeachment given there are only nine days left in a Trump presidency,” Graham tweeted on Monday. “It is past time for all of us to try to heal our country and move forward. Impeachment would be a major step backward.”
Several House Republicans on Wednesday echoed the calls for unity, which everyone knows are phony. It’s a political excuse that won’t work — not anymore. It might work to let Trump off the hook without a conviction that could strip him from some of the benefits bestowed to former presidents.
But in the end, Trump and his instigators must pay for it. Corporate America is doing what Republicans won’t do by refusing to do business with Trump.
Social media giants Twitter and Facebook silenced him — the free speech argument notwithstanding. The PGA of America won’t hold its championship at his New Jersey golf course next year, and Deutsche Bank is among the major businesses that have cut ties.
That’s all fitting for a president who for various reasons picked up the torch of Confederate Lost Cause ideology, as Yale Professor David W. Blight eloquently explained.
“The country needs healing and unity, but it needs justice and better storytelling of its history more,” Blight recently wrote in The New York Times.
America can’t begin healing and uniting until justice is done, until Trump and the other instigators are punished.
The FBI crackdown against those directly involved is reassuring. On Tuesday, agency officials said they have opened dozens of cases in connection with the Capitol riots and that they’re looking at possibility bringing sedition conspiracy charges against the perpetrators.
Then again, what about Trump and his minions?
If the Senate won’t punish Trump, then corporate America must not ever reward him and his lead instigators, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko.