Second impeachment trial brought no surprises

As the impeachment trial came to an end, the announcement of a second acquittal for Donald Trump came as no surprise. 

In all honesty, it was expected.

According to CNBC, the Senate acquitted Trump on Feb. 13 with a 57-43 vote on the charge of inciting an insurrection for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Although it seems Trump should have been found guilty with a 57-43 vote, in an impeachment, it is required to have two-thirds of the votes to impeach the president. That means the Democrats would have needed 17 Republican senators to vote in their favor to reach the vote requirement. 

Among those 57 senators, only seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump. It is a shame that the rest of the Republican party could not stand to protect the Constitution.

No matter how much the media or the people urged the Republican party to vote against Trump, it would have never happened. The impeachment trial was rigged from the very beginning.

According to Business Insider, several Republicans were late to the proceedings and those that attended didn’t seem to care. There were some Republican senators who were doodling, sleeping, looking at maps, or simply refusing to wear a mask to the Senate chamber. 

Additionally, Trump’s defense lawyers did not prepare anything in advance and did not take the proceedings seriously enough. They did exactly what Trump would have done if he was his own lawyer, they spread misleading information about what went down in the Capitol riots. 

According to Newsweek, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz advised the Trump defense team and even went on to tell them that they “already won” before casting his vote. 

Minority leader Mitch McConnell criticized Trump for his role in the Capitol riots at first but when it came to the vote, McConnell chose to protect Trump.

It was all a show from the beginning because the Republican party was never going to vote to convict Trump on insurrection.

The American people need to demand the resignation of the 43 Republican senators or come next congressional election to vote them out. They are not defending the Constitution and they are definitely not protecting democracy.