The United State Senate voted today on the Impeachment Trial of former president Donald Trump. Fifty-seven senators voted guilty when asked for their vote,. They voted to find Trump guilty by 15 votes. This was an historic rebuke. Fifty-seven percent of the elected Senators found Trump guilty. Keep in mind that the article of impeachment was a bi-partisan effort in the House of Representatives. This was the most bipartisan support for impeachment in history of the Senate.

Trump was only acquitted because the Senate requires 67 percent of Senators to vote guilty, which would have meant 10 more Republicans would have been needed to find him guilty. But those Republicans hid behind a false wall. A wall that was invisible. It is constitutional to impeachment a government official who is out-of-office. Donald Trump is a former government official. The Senate voted in the affirmative that the impeachment was constitutional. The trial could go forward. The Republicans hung their hat on this question, but they have risked their professional integrity by not voting on the evidence.

The evidence was overwhelming. The videos, test messages, time lines established by time-stamp videos, along with phone records was put together to form a solid case proving Trump’s guilt in inciting a riot on the United States Capitol.

Well, Kevin…

Just as Trump’s phone call to the President of Ukraine in 2019 led to his first impeachment, his phone calls to senators “while” the attack was going own shows that Trump’s state of mind was clear. Kevin McCarthy, leader of the Republican minority in the House, called Trump to beg the President to call off the mob, knowing the rioters were Trump’s supporters. Here’s what Trump said. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” The phone call was reduced to a shouting match. This, mind you, was just at the beginning of the assault on the nation’s Capitol.

This and other testimony by Republican representative and a Democratic senator proved that Trump had no intention of protecting any of the elected representatives of government. This was dereliction of duty which also meant that Trump supported the insurrection.

The 43 Republicans who voted to acquit Trump must wonder now what they did. Why did they vote to acquit when some had spoken publicly that Trump was responsible for the Capitol insurrection? Other’s were in shock when listening and watching the House Managers present their case. Harrowing video of the despicable assault on the Capitol. Yet, these Republican senators refused to cast their vote on the basis on the evidence presented in the trial. They made a partisan decision to vote no. They were fearful of being attacked by Donald Trump. Some of them, I think, will simply run.

Guilty by the Millions

McConnell is the head of the republican conference in the Senate. However, he shed any form of leadership based on the speech he made to explain away his vote for acquittal. If you listen to the first half of McConnell’s speech you have to scratch your head and wonder why this senator did not vote to find Trump guilty. He’s using a legal argument to claim that the Constitution does not say ex-officials can be impeached. However, he is the one interpreting the Second Amendment. There are many legal scholars who would disagree with McConnell. They would claim that an ex-president is subject to impeachment and trial. An ex-president can be found guilty.

So, McConnell gave his Republican conference partisan cowards an excuse to not convict. Not on the evidence. No, on McConnell’s interpretation. The problem here is that McConnell is not the Supreme Head of anything, but a senator in the senate minority.

Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) voted to acquit. They led the insurrection in the Senate. They spoke in favor of Trump’s ‘big lie.’ The election was stolen.

They gave concurrent speeches which indirectly added fuel to those getting ready to follow Trump’s orders to attack halls of Congress. They each supported the rioters. In fact, Senator Hawley, on his way into his senate office on the morning of January 6, 2021 gave a thumbs up to the people gathering for the speeches by Trump and his sycophants. Later, those people would become part of the mob that attacked his office in the nation’s capitol.

Trump may not have been convicted by the 100-member U.S. Senate, but he will be found guilty by more than a hundred million Americans.