Trump is no longer the President of the United States, but we can’t stop talking about him.
It’s not because we miss him or anything, of course. Rather, it’s that his actions in the past have had such far-reaching consequences that it’s difficult to forget them.
His latest offence as President may also have been his most damaging: rejecting the outcome of the presidential election and allegedly inciting a mob to riot at the Capitol Hill, a meeting place of the United States Congress in Washington, D.C.
For this transgression, Democrats impeached Trump for a second time in Congress. But, surprise, surprise, Trump was acquitted by the US Senate.
But before we get to that, let’s go back in time to 6 Jan, to the day where Trump allegedly committed his most heinous act as president.
“Incitement of Insurrection”
Actually, we’ll have to go back further in time to November 2020.
In most democratic elections, when one party loses, they accept the loss.
But we now know why most parties in the history of democracy have done this so far: because they never had Donald Trump as their leader.
In the 2020 US Presidential Election, Joe Biden won by a clear margin over Donald Trump. The choice of the American people was clear for all to see, except Donald Trump and his supporters.
Trump claimed that the election was rife with fraud and said he’d be initiating several lawsuits to prove this, but of course, all his lawsuits were thrown out of court.
Despite this, Trump continued to make claims of election fraud on social media, provoking his supporters into anger over the outcome too.
Over the last few weeks of his presidency, Trump stirred the emotions of his sycophantic supporters by drumming up resistance to his defeat, which culminated in a violent riot at the Capitol Hill, a meeting place of the United States Congress in Washington, D.C.
Before the riot, Trump urged his followers to march on the Capitol and repeated his claims of a rigged election.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he told his protestors.
And that’s exactly what his supporters did.
Five people died in the riot, including four rioters and one police officer.
At the time, many congress members had to be evacuated from the building. It is believed that if they had crossed paths with the rioters, they may have been harmed or worse.
Congressman or Congresswomen are akin to Members of Parliament in Singapore, so it’s a bigly issue.
This incitement of insurrection is exactly why the Democrats wanted to impeach Trump.
The article of impeachment stated that Trump “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted”.
It said that he “willfully made statements to the crowd that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol”, leading to the violence and loss of life.
How Impeachment Works
Before we dive into impeachment, here’s a brief description of how the US government works:
The US government comprises three main branches.
Congress creates the laws, the Executive Branch implements and ensures the laws are followed, and the Judicial Branch decides how those laws are interpreted and applied.
The men and women who are in Congress are like MPs in Singapore; they’re voted into office by the people.
Congress is divided into two institutions: the Senate, which has 100 seats, and the House of Representatives, which has 435 seats.
For reference, Singapore doesn’t have two institutions but just one house, so whatever debate will be made by merely one group of people.
Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get back to impeachment.
An impeachment is a process by which an incumbent president of the United States is accused of wrongdoing.
It is a political process, not a criminal one.
Since the process begins in the House of Representatives, Democrats had no trouble voting to impeach Trump, because they had the majority.
But a president can only be removed from office if he is found guilty of his wrongdoing by the Senate.
And this, as you know, didn’t happen in the end.
Two-Thirds Majority Needed to Convict
See, instead of a simple majority, a two-thirds majority vote is needed in the Senate to convict a president of a crime.
With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats and the two independents needed 17 Republicans to join them to convict Trump.
Lest you’re still confused, here’s the thing: Trump is a Republican.
So they only managed to get 7 Republicans on their side, with the Senate voting 57-43.
Interestingly, 71% of American adults, including nearly half of all Republicans, believe Trump was at least partially responsible for starting the Capitol assault.
But only around half believed he should be convicted of inciting insurrection, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters.
Also, as you probably can tell, the result of the trial is more or less confirmed even before the Trump is impeached.
Why Impeach Him After His Presidency?
Now you’re probably wondering: if the whole point of impeachment is to remove a sitting president from office, why move to convict him when he’s no longer the president?
For Democrats, this would have been more of a symbolic gesture, to hold Trump accountable for the violent siege on Capitol Hill.
You see, in the world of politics, optics is important.
If they had successfully voted to convict him, Senators may also have voted to bar him from ever holding public office again.
But since neither happened, Trump is free to run again in 2024 for the presidency.
So, in 2027 when I’m writing about Trump’s sixth impeachment, I hope leisure travel, KTV sessions, and rock concerts will all be back.
Featured Image: Golden Brown / Shutterstock.com
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