02/18/2021
Alyse Kaminski | Staff Columnist
Over the weekend, former President Trump was acquitted on impeachment charges dealing with his involvement in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6.
This came as no surprise to me.
When I logged on to Twitter after seeing headlines of the acquittal, my feed was filled with users writing as though they were shocked that this is how it all ended. I personally cannot fathom why anyone would be surprised by this. Going into the vote, it had already been confirmed that the needed number of Republican votes to convict was not going to be reached.
Of course this news is disheartening, but it does not really change anything other than confirming what we already know to be true: that Republicans once again chose their party over their country.
I will be crystal clear in saying that Donald Trump was 100% guilty in helping to cause the breach of the Capitol. This would not have happened under anyone else’s leadership, and the evidence shown at the hearings completely proves that. Mitch McConnell, who voted not to convict President Trump, even said so. In a tweet from CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, she confirmed that Senate Minority Leader McConnell said, “There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.”
If that does not prove my point, absolutely nothing will.
All of the evidence presented at the hearing confirms that Trump was responsible — and it did not begin with the rally on Jan 6. To me, one of the most compelling pieces of evidence was the time that Trump applauded, via Twitter, the people who attempted to run a Biden campaign bus off an interstate.
Or what about the time Trump retweeted a video in which a man said, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat?” You can tell me all day long that that man’s words were taken out of context. I will not believe you. Whether he meant a dead person or a dead party, it is unacceptable, and the fact that Trump had the audacity to retweet it speaks volumes about his maturity and his capability to ever take office again.
Speaking of violence to Democrats, we all know that is why those insurrectionists broke into the Capitol. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why the man who sat at House Speaker Pelosi’s desk had a stun gun on him. Or why a gallow was set up outside the building.
Of course this was planned in advance. But it was planned in advance due to the culmination of Trump’s fear mongering, pushing of baseless conspiracy theories and violent remarks that caused his followers to do what they did.
He should have been held accountable, but once again he was not.
And that is thanks to the Grand Old Party, which is composed of nothing but spineless politicians who are supposed to protect this country from exactly what happened on Jan. 6. They are too concerned about the fate of their dying party, and the rising feeling among young people in this country that they are on their way out.
I applaud the seven Republican senators who did what was obviously the right thing. It is brave to break apart from something so toxic when the majority is doing something else, but these seven exercised their civic duty by doing what they could so the corruptness, ineptitude and evil that is Trump may never make his way back into the White House.
Instead of doing what is right for the people of this country and protecting us from another siege of what has been deemed ours for the past 245 years, the rest of the Senate Republicans chose to protect their party, and the leader who made this all happen.
May it never happen again.
