Daniella Fishman, Staff Writer |
Last Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, the White House announced that the Senate had voted to acquit President Trump of all impeachment charges. In a drastic turn of events, the Senate voted 52 to 48 in favor of an acquittal for abuse of power and 53 to 47 in favor of clearing him of obstruction. All Democrats and just one Republican voted guilty, the one Republican being Sen. Mitt Romney, who publicly explained his reason for voting guilty one day prior to the acquittal. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented impeachment trial is the shortest in history, lasting only eight weeks.
In her address to the press, just hours after the acquittal announcement, Nancy Pelosi made her opinions on the matter very clear, stating, “The president will boast that he has been acquitted, but there can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses.” Pelosi is referencing the block Republicans placed on possible key players in the investigation testifying at the trial. Dems are remaining consistent with their disapproval of Trump’s presidency, Pelosi also claiming that, “He [Trump] is impeached forever,” meaning that his political reputation has been forever tarnished by this trial. The Dems plan on making that statement their unofficial mantra as the politics of Trump’s Presidency changes due to his impeachment. John Avlon of CNN summarized the Democrat’s rationale by claiming, “Acquittal is not exoneration.”
Republicans are celebrating Trump’s victory and are adamant to discredit all refutes by Democrats about the trial. Many republicans maintain that the reason for Trump’s ‘tarnished reputation,’ is not the impeachment trial itself, but the Democrats who ‘unlawfully’ set the trial upon him. Trump took to Twitter to congratulate himself on his victory over this “impeachment hoax.” At the same time, many other Republicans are taking to various social media platforms to congratulate Trump on his victory. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham stated, “He spent his time achieving real wins for the people of this country, and the Democrats — once again — have nothing to show for their fraudulent schemes,” thus cementing her stance on the impeachment trial.
While the trial may be over, tensions still remain high over the following political changes that will occur as a result of this trial. Democrats still have high hopes for the future of changing healthcare legislature, as they were doing before the start of the impeachment trial.
The end of the trial also brings about many questions towards the upcoming election. After the announcement of his acquittal, Trump’s approval rating jumped to 49 percent, the highest it’s been in a long time. This begs the question, will Trump run in the 2020 election even after his political reputation became tarnished? Only time will tell what kind of political drama will unfold in the coming months. Until then, Trump will remain in the presidential office.
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