This is what I didn’t really understand about the wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the Trump Impeachment Trial. I get that it was historic and I get that the fake-ass trial probably even got under Donny Smallhands’ paper-thin skin. But… the result was never in doubt. Democrats weren’t going to be able to magically produce votes out of thin air. No one would be able to convince Republican traitors to grow a moral code or a sense of decency. Smallhands would always be acquitted. And so that’s what happened, formally, yesterday:
After five months of hearings, investigations and revelations about President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, a divided United States Senate acquitted him on Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress to aid his own re-election, bringing an acrimonious impeachment trial to its expected end.
In a pair of votes whose outcome was never in doubt, the Senate fell well short of the two-thirds margin that would have been needed to remove the 45th president. The verdicts came down — after three weeks of debate — almost entirely along party lines, with every Democrat voting “guilty” on both charges and Republicans uniformly voting “not guilty” on the obstruction of Congress charge. Only one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with his party to judge Mr. Trump guilty of abuse of power.
It was the third impeachment trial of a president and the third acquittal in American history, and it ended the way it began: with Republicans and Democrats at odds. They disagreed over Mr. Trump’s conduct and his fitness for office, even as some members of his own party conceded the basic allegations that undergirded the charges, that he sought to pressure Ukraine to smear his political rivals.
I think it’s Bill Kristol – the neoconservative who helped George W. Bush lie America into war with Iraq – who always says that when all is said and done on the Smallhands administration, no one will admit to having supported it. Like, a decade from now, all of the Republicans who voted for acquittal will still be in Washington, burnishing their legacies and working as lobbyists or cable-news pundits and saying that they never really supported Donald Trump. And it’s true. And it sucks.
As for Mitt Romney… yeah, I’m not a fan, but he gets a cookie for what he did here. ONE cookie.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Mitt has always been right about Donnie smallhands.
And yet, Mitt has been voting for almost all his policies and judges. It’s really easy to stand up when it won’t change anything, it’s like screaming “I object!” in front of your mirror really.
Had he manage to work to get colleagues to vote to call witnesses, then maybe he would have got half a cookie, but now he only gets cookie crumbs.
No, it isn’t easy to stand up in this way. He is the ONLY Senator in history to vote against the president of his own party during impeachment. His vote was historic and unprecedented.
He and his family will be subjected to threats and ridicule for years to come. Don Jr. is already threatening to throw him out of the Senate.
Is that before or after he openly supported him when he thought he would grab him as his VP? Because only once that ship crashed and burned did Mitt hate on Trump.
He gets a cookie, but doug jones gets more cookies. That took guts to vote to convict for an Alabama senator. It was always a long shot that he would get re-elected anyway, but this pretty much seals the deal (that he’ll lose.) Romney has 4 years before re-election and Utah may look more favorably on his vote than other states.
The result was never in doubt, but what cracks me up about Romney’s vote is that THAT became the big story last night. The focus was on Romney and his speech, not on the fact that Trump was acquitted. That must have infuriated Trump.
Someone on MSNBC said last night that this vote was like the Iraq vote – it is the politically correct choice NOW, in 2020, but in 5 or 10 years the Rs will deny having made it or will have very convoluted logic for their choice etc.
He gets HALF a cookie as he only voted guilty on abuse of power but not obstruction of which IMPOTUS was INFINITELY guilty.
Half a cookie Mittens, half a cookie only.
Lol at half a cookie but I gotta say I appreciated it because it felt to me like it broke through the surreal bubble of delusion and lies around Trump and the GOP congresspeople, acknowledging the reality that the rest of us see. It felt like a weird relief. I wished he’d announced it sooner, though, maybe it would have swayed others to do the same.
@Esmom I agree completely. I felt a sense of relief that someone on the GOP side of the room did the right thing. I wish he would have voted guilty on both as he is guilty of both! But I appreciate half.
Same, Esmom. It was tiny celebration amidst all the gaslighting and cowardice and deceit. It gave me hope that we might come through this.
I couldn’t figure that out because he so clearly obstructed Congress. Like, vote for that one over abuse of power if you only want to vote for one!
I think Romney is going to come out of this fine in the end, but I think it shows you how crazy the Republican party has become and how Trumpism has taken such hold.
Even if he gets re-elected, he’s not going to live forever. There’s going to come a point when Rs have to make political choices NOT based on fear of Trump tweeting at them.
Becks1, Yeah that was lame that he didn’t vote guilty on both counts. It reminded me of the time I served on a jury and one lady didn’t want to convict the guy on all counts. She thought we should vote not guilty on one of them “to be nice.” The rest of us shut that down fast, lol.
I give no cookies to Doug Jones, because while he may be a current long shot for reelection, he wouldn’t have been elected in the first place of it wasn’t for the support of black Democrats, mainly black women, and he has sold them out every step of the way. No cookies for you Doug Jones!
Well he was consistent. He voted for witnesses and he voted to for this dummy’s removal. He could done what stupid Collins did – yes for witnesses but removal is too harsh. He stood up for what he believes in and now Rump Jr is asking that he be expelled from GOPers.
WTF are we in a communist nation? I thought only communists expelled party leaders.
If you watch the video of small hands at the SOTU address (with sound off), he was spasing throughout the speech. Some people on Twitter said he has dementia. I hope his brain turns to mush. Then we can remove him.
There is good op-ed in the NYT this morning about how many of the Republican Senators are just simply scared of him, scared of being called names, being attacked on the news etc…he’s like a g-d bully on the playground. It’s disheartening to realize that some of those Republicans KNOW he was guilty but are just scared of him because he’s so f#$king mean. I’m not making excuses for any of them because seriously, they need to grow a pair, but wow.
He’s really not a bully. He’s more like a hollaback girl. A big, fat, stupid old white Male hollaback girl. And this sh– is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
They’re all like 8th graders worried that they won’t get to sit with the cheerleaders at lunch. I give kudos to those who rose above their own self interests to vote, obviously, guilty, but it’s sad to me that people think it takes all this courage to just do the right thing.
Yeah, I read that too, it was written by Sherrod Brown. It was eye opening and depressing af.
Depressing and scary to know that some of them are only going along with a raving lunatic because they don’t want to be made fun of…it’s great. A five year old is more independent than these f#cks.
It’s not just the mockery – it’s the fact that they aligned himself with a base that supports his behavior. They have nobody but themselves to blame after years of racist, sexist, and homophobic policies, but now that’s who they have to work with to maintain their seats. If this has done anything, it should emphasize how important term limits should be for every sitting position in government, whether congressman, president, or judge. People who make a career out of political money cannot be trusted.
I am willing to bet that term limits will NEVER happen in my lifetime, too much greed. It’s way too easy to sit there and vote with the majority and go home with a big fat paycheck.
Those”scared Republicans* had their chance to get rid of him, and they didn’t. They are complicit of Trump’s corruption in their weakness.
They are scared because the Trump campaign and PACs have raised hundreds of millions of dollars already. They are afraid of being targeted with ads.
Thing is, this gave them the PERFECT WAY to get rid of/remove the #TangerineTwitler…AND THEY DIDNT TAKE IT!!
His SOTU spotlight was stolen by Speaker Pelosi ripping up his speech.
His acquittal spotlight was stolen by Kirk Douglas.
While I mourn the loss of our Republic, I laugh at his frustration when others get more attention.
He hates it when he’s not the center of attention. He’s like a toddler who drops a vase when adults are talking and ignoring him. He’s such a whiny creep.
Yep. I knew this result was coming but it was still shocking and disgusting to see the GOP’s cowardice in real time. They have told this awful man that he can do anything he wants. But I am glad amity’s vote pulled focus from the acquittal.
Please note- in no way am I trying to excuse the Republicans or diminish the horror of emotional abuse. This is simply an observation based on my own experience growing up with a father exactly like Trump.
This entire presidency has been like watching the Republican party turn into an abused spouse. Very few people know how to handle a man like Trump- the sheer vitriol, absolute narcissism, emotional manipulation, complete rejection of logic, violent mood swings, two-faced behavior in front of different audiences, tantrums that start wars, blatant lying and forcing others to accept his version of reality- this is the kind of thing most people watch on television for good drama, not someone you believe you could possibly face in reality. From the very beginning of his presidency, Republicans would contort themselves to create any semi-rational explanation for his behavior. They made a thousand excuses, began their obsequious fawning, they appeased and appeased and appeased until there was no way out. And the rest of the world was (sort of) like the friend trying to make the abused person see how fucked up the situation was (still is) and leave.
I honestly don’t know what kind of Republican Party will emerge after this administration. Perhaps the same behaviours which emerged from supporters of other fascist regimes. Zealous faith. Fear. “I was just following the party line.” Psychological distancing- “I wasn’t like the rest, they bear all the blame.” All I know is that an ordeal like this changes you. It seemed at the very end, the focus of the impeachment was not a determination of Trump’s innocence or guilt, but a test of the Republican party’s moral character. And they failed.
IMPEACHED FOREVER!!
Thank you, Senator Doug Jones. I had faith you would do the right thing-you have always been a man of conscience. I and the hundreds of other volunteers who worked for your election in 2017 and all Alabamians not still mired in the Old South salute you. Now let’s get to work for November!
He’s unleashed, and he’s going to go after Romney. He’s also going to try and have Bolton prosecuted by his corrupt justice department. And they are already opening an investigation into Hunter Biden, seconds after the acquittal. I will say Romney is being undervalued for what he did. Yes ,Doug Jones will likely lose his seat (he is a truly good man and I donate to him), but Romney is under siege. He’s under siege and no one knows how far that’s going to go.
I’m sure Romney made that calculation and still decided the risk was worth it. I honestly can’t imagine how it’s going to unfold, beyond Don Junior’s dumbass call to have Romney “expelled.”
He won by more than double the votes of his Dem opponent. His state is solid red, he’s only 2 years into his term, and if I’m not mistaken, the Mormon community is not a big fan of Trump. I think he’ll hold onto his seat, should he choose to run again in 2024.
But in general, it was risky. I’m no fan of his, but I do think he did the right thing here, and I appreciate it.
Mormons are super religious. I’m pretty sure they are not down with the pussy grabber.
Trump is advocating that Romney be kicked out of the Republican party.
Fine. That’ll reduce their majority in the Senate,
I really worry for him. We’ve seen what Trump supporters do when they feel directed by the president to attack. We’ve seen that with b*ombs sent to CNN, newspapers, politicians. Shoppers at Wal-Mart died because of Trump’s rhetoric.
I think Mitt will do fine. People who try to touch him will be in trouble. It’s against the law to make death threats to a Senator. I’m sure there are still honorable people in the FBI who will pay a visit to those bozos who will try to touch Mitt.
I hope he will do fine, but we have seen a representative shot in recent years. Congressional members aren’t free from vulnerability. Senators don’t get the same kind of protection as the POTUS or their family.
So since the dems HAD to know this was going to be the result, can be speculate on what their plan is? They have to have one right?
Can they impeach him again on different charges? Maybe his financial crimes?
That’s what I would have done, and I would have made sure the republicans – who are guilty of their own financial crimes – knew it. “Okay, sure acquit him of these and we go after him for his tax crimes. Who knows what else we will turn up when we start investigating?”
The Dems plan was to show the deciding 40% Independents how corrupt Trump & Republican Party truly is. And they succeeded that brilliantly.
75% of population wanted witnesses and Republican Party showed them the middle finger.
This impeachment was always about November 2020 election and we now have very good chance of regaining the Senate.
As an Independent…no they didn’t. I’m not swayed or convinced or moved. I hate both sides equally and it made the 2020 election even harder for the moderates and independents who are displaced.
I think its honestly better politically for the Dems that the Republicans voted against witnesses (ignoring truth,justice and the constitution for the moment). Those senators had to show their cards and vote for no witnesses because they know he’s guilty as hell and witnesses are only going to make it worse. I’m not sure it was smart to play to the portion of the base that would never in a million years vote for anyone other than a Republican over the portion who are going to have more difficulty ignoring or justifying a blatant cover up.
@Dani: well after seeing the corruption from Republicans and the evidence from the Democrats and you still don’t see how wrong Republicans are, then there is nothing more to say.
People like you gave us Trump in 2016 and you doing exactly the same thing this time around. Moral voters really need to come down from their high horses and see that not both sides are evil. Only one side is while the other is fighting it…
I honestly don’t understand hating both sides equally.
I was an independent for a long time, and am not a fan of the 2 party system or he big political machines, but FFS.
Please look at what the current Administration has done to the environment, the tax code, safety nets like food stamps and disability help, people seeking asylum, the Supreme Court, etc, and maybe vote for the party you hate a little less right now?
Dani, Sierra is absolutely right that 75% of the American people wanted witnesses and documents. The majority of Americans (not just democrats) wanted him to be impeached and removed.
If seeing a dozen witnesses testify that military aid was held up solely for the President’s personal political benefit hasn’t convinced you that he is totally corrupt, nothing will.
I don’t see how a person can see all of these FACTS laid out clearly and corroborated, and still shrug their shoulders. Either there are comprehension issues….or more likely, people just don’t GAF if there is corruption at the highest levels as long as they aren’t personally impacted (yet).
@Dannii if you can’t see those bozos selling our country to the Communists then I don’t know what to say. GOPers and Rump sold us out. They are traitors. That’s all you need to know.
Your tax break? Medicare? Social Security? Kiss those goodbye too because if they maintain power, those are going away as well. Pretty soon grandmas and grandpas will be out working because those traitors don’t think they should “support” them. They’ll work until they leave the earth.
They can and will impeach him again. But in the meantime, several GOP Senators just kissed their careers good-bye, no matter how much money McConnell promised the party would pour into their campaigns. Susan Collins might as well just move to her retirement home now, she’s done.
They don’t even need a new indictment to impeach again, IIRC. The Dems can just take over the Senate and redo the removal trial, right?
I hope you’re right!
Good bye Collins, Ernst (her particularly), Murkowski, Graham and that bitch Moscow Mitch!
Meanwhile, he’s inoculating the public to the notion of him staying permanently in power with memes about it, because every comparison to Hitler is right on the money and we are following the same trajectory as Nazi Germany. Seriously.
And I read a FB post where a real person- not a bot- said they were fine with him being a dictator as long as he keeps the economy humming. WTF.
Some people really are so dumb it’s scary.
If trump’s reelected (however he does that, it WILL be with foreign help, and thus not a free election) we are going to begin to see his political enemies fall out windows, ala Putin. I’m sorry to say this. But the idea that opposing him doesn’t take courage is starting to take hold I see, and people, you are wrong. I feel like people still don’t get what we are dealing with. AND I’ll go further…I don’t believe the first to go out the window will be the first body he’s floated. I think with his life long mob ties, well…but anyway, that’s when he was just a private thug. Now, he’s an authoritarian leader and the most powerful person the world.
Trump is all about projection, and the way him and the right spread conspiracy theories about Hillary being a murderer, it would not surprise me if we found out he killed people not on fifth ave. and got away with it.
I try not to be alarmist, but this is becoming alarming. I will be taking my summer vacay in Canada to scope out a potential move. If he gets re-elected, I may peace out of the US.
Same Rapunzel. Which part of Canada? I’m going to Toronto and Ottawa.
I am an American living in Toronto almost 8 years and once I get dual citizenship, I am moving back to the US. There is a lack of warmth here in the culture that the Us has. I plan when I retire to split my time between BC and Nc, but I advise against Toronto unless you can handle superficial friendships.
That recording of him talking about the Ukraine ambassador, where he says “take her out”? It was chilling, and I felt like he’d be perfectly fine with her having an “accident”.
3 of his very top casino executives died in a helicopter crash in 2017, when the rotor of the helicopter just came off.
Congress needs to go after Barr right now. Cut the head of the snake off and it’s useless.
Anyone see Jr’s post calling Romney pu**y? The Apple didn’t fall far at all from the tree.
How can there be so many sociopath psychopath idiots in just one family??? It’s just amazing.
Their money and privilege protects them from any of life’s serious consequences. That’s why Collin’s trying to justify her acquittal vote with “she believes he has learned his lesson” looks like the worst kind of buffoonery. I will be reading news of her 2020 defeat with pleasure.
Lol…. they can’t even keep their stories straight. Earlier in the day, it was all “Nancy so rude ripping up Trump’s speech” but the cries for civility went out the window when Romney voted guilty. Hypocrites, the lot of them.
I did see that, but that’s all ok…I swear, I’ve had to unfollow so many people on FB, I just can’t deal with their stupidity any longer. They are all up in arms about ‘disrespectful Nancy Pelosi’, yet all the other $hit we’ve listened to for years is ok. Remember when Hillary said he had “good kids”, I bet she’s wishing she could take that back now!
Anyone see Ivanka’s tweet lecturing us about how we need to support her & Daddy? Followed by a picture of her on her taxpayer funded vacation to the Winter Olympics in S. Korea.
If you can, give some support to Doug Jones and others in risky states, they’re going to need our help.
We all knew it would turn out this way, but it was still disappointing to watch. But it had to be done – the crimes had to be put out there for the world to see, and it had to be put on those Republican politicians to publicly vote and be saddled with that forever.
All we can do now is vote.
You can contribute to Doug Jones here https://dougjones.com/. If you’re in Alabama as I am, you can work on the campaign-phonebanking, canvassing, postcarding, etc. Every little bit helps. His opponent might be the dumped on but still ass kissing Little Jeffy Sessions or the odious once a moderate Dem now a raging Tea Partier Bradley Byrne. Even Pedo Roy Moore has thrown his fake cowboy hat in the ring.
There’s a program called Postcards To Voters that I just signed up the other day, you can do mailings and stuff for tough races all over the country.
You guys in Alabama have a tough battle ahead, thank you to all who are in the fight!
We knew what the outcome would be, but it needed to be done. It’s on the record now historically. Nobody voting Republican in 2020 can pretend the party isn’t extraordinarily corrupt.
And hoo boy, they better hope the precedent that defense set for acquitting Trump doesn’t come to bite them in the ass a decade or so from now.
A tiny cookie for Romney. He took the default position citing his religion as his motivator, not the Constitution. He is a US senator not a Mormon minister.
In California the Mormon and Catholic churches spent 52 million to fight Prop 8, same sex marriage. Romney had zero chance of winning a gubernatorial race in CA and a run for the presidency. Utah is the only state with a strong Mormon base, easy win.
As to Independents, we count at 21% in CA and lean left. And as to Drumpf, it will worsen for him. Gloves are off! Wear white and shred paper.
Wear white and shed paper! I love it! Now those are marching orders I can get behind!
Thank you Mitt. He’s the last of what the GOP once was… someone tolerable with at least some integrity despite different beliefs. Well kasich too.
Marie Yovanovitch speaks eloquently. This is the type of public servant trump fears-intelligent, patriotic, fearless.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/06/marie-yovanovitch-ukraine-ambassador-american-institutions-need-us/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
I support Marie so much. She’s incredibly intelligent and her article was very powerful. I wish her all of the best, and hope she stays safe.
It’s easy to be fake acquitted when you are fake tried.
I’m so angry about this that I almost can’t breathe and am getting a stress rash. I give Romney a box of cookies, a case of Diet Coke and a pizza.
Re Mitt Romney: If this is what counts for integrity in the Republican Party, that’s a very low bar.
Also, this is the guy that put the family dog in a crate on the roof of the car on a long vacation drive and was pissed that it had fear-induced diarrhea on top of the car. #neverforget
In November. Driving to Canada, IIRC. And hosed the car and dog down in freezing weather.
He is definitely not a good guy, IMO. I’ll never forget his whining about the “47%” either.
But yesterday he did a good thing.
Agreed! He did what all the Dem senators did, he’s not getting half the cr@p Nancy Pelosi gets on any given Tuesday morning, he’s rich and will live a good easy life if he ever looses his elections but we should praise him for having done the bare minimum?!
I don’t even want to hear the “he’s the 1st one voting against a POTUS of his own party” line: it didn’t happen before because the GOP senators back in the 70s told Nixon he’d be on his own if he decided to stick around for a trial and he was smart enough to step down before it happened
And now Drumpf is going to take revenge.
Brace yourselves.
The repubs are so stupid. They all whisper to others how chickensh** they are, how much they hate him…and yet do nothing. If they would have banded together and had a majority and REMOVED HIM FROM OFFICE — then they wouldn’t have to fear him anymore. They could have turned the full force of an EQUAL branch of government against him — and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. They could have basically tarred and feathered him and run him out of town or arrested him–they have the power–and instead they sat their and cried like babies and whispered about their fears. They are 100% worthless traitors and cowards.
I wrote my senators expressing my disgust with their vote to acquit. Of course, having Blackburn and Alexander here in Tennessee doesn’t give one much hope. But you know what? I don’t care, the impeachment has made me feel much more optimistic about our future. And seeing our neighboring state’s senator, Doug Jones, do the right thing and vote to remove–it’s great! It’s less than one year until the inauguration of our next president–hopefully a Democrat who will set us on the path to fix what the GOP has broken and also fix huge loopholes in the power of the presidency that we had no idea about until Trump starting using them for evil.
It boggles the mind how the republicans rave about their superior morals and values, yet have zero qualms about acquitting a proven guilty person, just because it is another republican. For shame.
It was no surprise. It was kind of like putting a murderer on trial and dismissing the blood evidence, eyewitnesses, video footage of the murder and putting the murderer’s family on the jury. Of course he was acquitted. Mitch “creepy eyes” Mc’Connell pretty much said as much. He always said he could shoot someone on 5th ave and get away with it.
But he will always be impeached and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it. Heh heh.
If he wins the election again, my prediction is that the people are going to rise up in fury. The common people outnumber the elite class. So America, the sleeping, complacent giant will wake up and remember what happened when we had a tyrant before. I think in a way that’s what he and his cohorts are waiting for. I’ve heard of his supporters talk about a second civil war (they don’t think liberals own guns so we’ll be easy to control, yeah I know when you have more guns than education, that’s what happens). What he doesn’t realize is, all the attacks he’s made on the military has long lasting effects. If the military sides with the people (as we know from history), it’s usually over for the regime.