Bianca Harkless
Editor-In-Chief
On January 13th, 2021, the second impeachment trial for the 45th President Donald J. Trump began with the House of Representatives claiming Trump had incited the January 6th riot at Capitol Hill. Though, on February 13th, 2021, the impeachment trial concluded, and the House of Representatives has not reached the needed two-thirds majority that they needed in order to convict the former President and acquit him of any charges he faced.
7 Republicans voted alongside Democrats in their impeachment efforts. According to an article by CNN Politics, the republicans who deemed President Trump guilty of abuse of power had various reasons why.
Richard Burr of North Carolina was one of the 7 Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment. He said in a statement that “The President prompted unfounded conspiracy theories to cast doubt on the integrity of a free and fair election because he did not like the results….the President directed his supporters to go to the Capitol to disrupt the lawful proceedings required by the Constitution.”
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, another republican who voted to impeach, had a statement that was not as long though it was just as important as any one of the speakers, saying that “Our constitution and our country is more important than any one person..” Susan Collins of Maine explained her vote on the Senate floor, saying her “vote in this trial stems from my own oath and duty to defend the Constitution of the United States. The abuse of power and betrayal of his oath by President Trump meet the Constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors…”
Lisa Murkowsku, another republican who voted against Trump, of Alaska is up for reelection soon and is aware that her vote here could have serious repercussions on her election status. She said, “It’s not about me. It’s not about me and my life, my job, this is really about what we stand for.”
Mitt Romney of Utah, who also voted for Trump’s impeachment during the first trial, accused the president of inciting insurrection against Congress and “President Trump violated his oath of office by failing to protect the Capitol….” Ben Sasse of Nebraska said that he was following through to the core of what he got elected on, doing his part if he saw an abuse of power. Finally, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania went on record saying that President Trump will “be remembered through history as the President who resorted to non-legal steps to try to hold onto power.”
An article by ABC News said President Trump’s lawyers were also very combative during the trial, not fighting to the results of the election or defending the actions of the riot, but claiming that the former president’s words did not incite violence and that political speech must be protected. One of the Trump attorneys, Michael van der Veen, said that President Trump called for peace rather than violence, saying he had the First Amendment Right to use “political rhetoric” when he called for his supporters to fight.’
To accompany the claims of it just being rhetoric, the attorney presented a video of different democrats using the word ‘fight’ on the Senate floor. “These are metaphorical, rhetorical uses of the word ‘fight’,” said van der Veen, “Spare us the hypocrisy and false indignation.”
Regardless of if you favored the impeachment or not, both sides made good claims to counteract the other. Here at the Eagle’s Eye encourage you to look into all information for yourself and look at multiple sources before making your choice. One thing is for certain, President Donald J. Trump is the first President in American History to be impeached twice.
Image Credit: apnews.com
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