Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump should be formally charged and impeached for the insurrection he incited on Jan. 6 at the Capitol Building.
A mob of Trump supporters and other republicans stormed the building after months of rhetoric from Trump himself questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential Election. Claims of fraud sparked outrage amongst his supporters, manifesting into an act of domestic terrorism.
The siege resulted in a temporary halt of the confirmation process for then President-Elect Joe Biden. Senators were forced to shelter-in-place and hide from the intruders.
Consequently, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives Jan. 13 for inciting the insurrection. He is the only president to be impeached twice.
The impeachment trial in the Senate began Feb. 9 and should not last longer than three weeks, according to The Guardian. If found guilty, Trump will be the first president ever convicted for “incitement of insurrection.” Though he may not be convicted, we believe he should.
A petition signed by over 200 political science professors across the nation indicates their collective support of conviction. In their eyes, the evidence is overwhelmingly clear. However, the land of politicians differs from the land of the public.
The fact of the matter is we live in a partisan world, and have partisan politicians, who will act partisan-ly.
Markie McBrayer, University of Idaho political science professor recognizes the Senate’s impeachment process and the highly politized landscape it operates in.
“Impeachment is a very political institution, and because it’s a political institution, we would expect partisanship to play a role,” McBrayer said. “They’re almost all along party lines.”
It would take 17 Republican senators to vote against party lines, reaching the required two-thirds majority for conviction. We may see senators such as Mitt Romney switch, but 17 seems unlikely. The overarching problem is defining the narrative of what happened.
“How did this occur and who was responsible, that’s what’s about to happen over the next few days,” McBrayer said. “We’re going to be discussing how we’ll look back at this in five or ten years.”
Many Republican senators are afraid of stepping outside party lines to challenge Trump, but for those who genuinely believe in acquisition, the proof we need is all there. Trump threw caution to the wind far before the election had even began and up until the morning of the Capitol’s siege.
From saying “frankly, we did win this election” on the night of Nov. 3 and saying “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you” on the morning of Jan. 6, Trump caused the riots. He should be found guilty of that crime.
We urge senators to look at the facts, analyze the situation and make the right choice. Trump should be convicted for inciting insurrection.
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Nancy Snell
Several Democrats incited violence as well. Should they be subject to the same??
Dan Roe
Do you have any inkling of what’s in the constitution?