The opening weeks of the year 2021 have been momentous. They will, no doubt, be discussed by American citizens during the months to follow and, in the years to follow, by the world’s historians. On January 6 Trumparians attacked the United States Capitol Building. Shortly afterwards, the House of Representatives, for the second time, voted that Donald J. Trump should be impeached – this time, for inciting his loyal followers to thwart the certification of Biden as President-Elect and prevent the normal peaceful transfer of power.
Mitch McConnell, then the Majority Leader of the Senate, said the trial relating to his Article of Impeachment would not be held until after Biden’s Inauguration on January 20. Nancy Pelosi, Chairman of the House of Representatives, delivered the Article to the Senate shortly after this date. Reluctantly, the Senate began its deliberations in early February. On February 13, fifty Democrats and seven Republicans voted “guilty.” However, the “not guilty” votes by forty-three Republicans carried the day, since Senate agreement to an Impeachment requires a plurality of votes; the motion failed by seven votes.
The results of the Senate’s deliberations came as no surprise. There has been the political view that Trump, who no longer serves actively as President, could not be removed from this Office and an Impeachment would not be Constitutional. On the other hand, others expressed concern about the “January Exception,” wherein a lame-duck President could do whatever he wanted to during his last weeks in Office, in particular, foster events that would preclude the necessity of his vacating the Office, itself.
For me, and perhaps for others as well, the real surprise came in the speech delivered by Mitch McConnell, shortly after Trump’s forgone acquittal. Since the Senate is equally divided between the Republican and Democrat parties with Kamela Harris, a Democrat, as the newly elected Vice President who chairs this body, Senator McConnell is now the minority leader. Somewhat surprisingly, in his speech before the full Senate, he agreed with almost all of the issues raised by the Democrat House Managers, who had presented their case over three days in the Senate’s deliberations. Mr. McConnell said,
“January 6th was a disgrace. American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like. Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. ... “They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth – because he was angry he'd lost an election. Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. ... “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth. The issue is not only the president's intemperate language on January 6th. It is not just his endorsement of remarks in which an associate urged "trial by combat." It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-president. ... “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things. Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors that unhinged listeners might take literally. This was different. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters' decision or else torch our institutions on the way out. ... “The unconscionable behavior did not end when the violence began. Whatever our ex-president claims he thought might happen that day, whatever reaction he says he meant to produce, by that afternoon, he was watching the same live television as the rest of the world. A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags, and screaming their loyalty to him. It was obvious that only President Trump could end this. Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies frantically called the administration. But the president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He didn't take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed, and order restored. Instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily as the chaos unfolded. He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election! Even after it was clear to any reasonable observer that Vice President Pence was in danger, even as the mob carrying Trump banners was beating cops and breaching perimeters, the president sent a further tweet attacking his vice president. Predictably and foreseeably under the circumstances, members of the mob seemed to interpret this as further inspiration to lawlessness and violence. ...If Senator McConnell had said these words, publicly, before the vote, there is a possibility that fewer than the forty-three Republicans would have voted: “Not guilty.” On the other hand, many of the seventy-plus-millions who voted a few months ago to reelect Mr. Trump might have renounced this particular Republican leader and we would be on the verge of a prolonged insurrection. Perhaps, Mr. McConnell was correct: Mr. Trump’s actions should not lead to his Impeachment, but rather, bear other results for him, personally. The events to come will prove to be interesting.
There is a saying to the effect that a certain, usually notoriously bad, event will occur “… when Hell freezes over!” The weather forecast for tomorrow, Presidents’ Day, 2021, for Houston and the Gulf Coast actually indicates that we will have the coldest temperatures ever recorded in this part of the country. Houston, itself, may expect several inches of snow! Look out!!