Trump’s impeachment: consequences, bipartisanship and voter fraud

Beginning with the Jan. 6 riot at the capital, Democrats from the House of Representatives took the first steps towards what would be former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment.   

Trump was officially impeached on Jan. 13 just a week before the end of his term. But what does this all mean? 

Impeachment is the constitutional procedure where Congress can remove the president, or another official, from public office. The House has to propose a bill of impeachment, an accusation of what the president did that deserves their removal from office. The bill has to be passed by a simple majority vote. As it did in Trump’s case, the bill is then passed to the Senate for a trial. 

Senators act as jurors who are presented evidence by members of the House. The Senate needs a two-thirds majority vote to be convicted. On Feb. 13, the effort fell short with 57 votes favoring his conviction, 10 less than the 67 needed. 

Though Trump’s impeachment process did not result in a conviction, it still holds historical significance. 

Trump is the first president to have been impeached twice and the first to face an impeachment trial after leaving office. 

If convicted, the president is removed from office and other punishments can be added on, like barring a president from holding federal office ever again. The president could also face civil suits or criminal charges. 

The trial itself is not an actual criminal proceeding, as explained by Aman McLeod, assistant professor of political science and lecturer in the University of Idaho’s College of Law. 

“There is nothing in the constitution that says you need to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; there is nothing that says they have to have violated a federal statute,” McLeod said. “Some people seem to think it is in the constitution, but it’s not.” 

In the case of “double jeopardy,” a president can be impeached and legally charged in separate proceedings. 

As for the motivation to convict Trump, McLeod believed Democrats wanted to show that the president should not get a free pass. 

“What they wanted was accountability,” McLeod said. “I think they wanted to set the precedent that if you are the president of the United States and you whip up a mob, you incite violence, you disrupt the constitutional procedures – there are consequences for that.” 

Trump’s presidency is also the first in which a president had members of his own party vote in favor of conviction. In Trump’s first impeachment, Republican Mitt Romney voted in favor of conviction. In his second impeachment, a total of seven Republicans did. 

“A number of Republicans don’t believe Trump incited the mob, that it was just a bunch of hooligans who got out of hand, that they misunderstood the president,” McLeod said. “That’s what some people believe.” 

McLeod also explained some people may believe the proceedings should not continue once the president is out of office, due to the constitution. 

Despite Trump being denounced publicly, even by members of his own party, many voted to acquit. 

“You had Mitch McConnell all but say that Trump was responsible for what happened, but he voted to acquit,” McLeod said. “Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell’s wife resigned from the cabinet because she couldn’t live with Trump’s actions.” 

Overall, the reaction of Republicans to Trump’s most recent impeachment has been mixed.  

“I think this is evidence of the sway he still has in his own party,” McLeod said. 

McLeod said that some tensions within the Republican party also came from Trump’s promotion of the idea of voter fraud. By telling people the system is rigged, some eligible voters have been convinced not to cast their ballots. 

“It’s a funny argument, ‘Go out and vote,’” McLeod said. “If you believed it was fraud, why would you go vote a second time?” 

Instead of strengthening his party, with this rhetoric, Trump discouraged his own party from voting and promoting a lack of faith in the democratic system. 

With a lack of evidence for accusations of voter fraud, both parties continue to use it as an excuse in elections. 

“I think it’s really dangerous when politicians prime people for not believing in reality by lying to them and whipping up their tendency to believe in conspiracies,” McLeod said.  “Once people lose faith in the democratic system, they cry fraud.” 

Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq.