| For the second time in a little more than a year, the United States Senate has failed to convict former President Donald J. Trump.
When I served as lead manager of the first impeachment, we warned the Senators that if they failed to convict Donald Trump after he betrayed our national security, he would do so again, that he had compromised our elections and he would do so again. We warned that they would not change or constrain him. That truth mattered little to him, what’s right mattered even less, and decency not at all. And we told Senators then, that it was in their hands to do something about it, if only they could muster the courage to do what was right. Only one Republican Senator did. We saw the result on January 6th, as Donald Trump did what we had feared and worse, by attempting to overturn the results of an election he lost. And when that failed, he incited a violent insurrection at the Capitol. The truth is that as expertly presented as the case was by Jamie Raskin and the House Managers, the facts were never in dispute. After all, the Senators themselves were witnesses to what happened. They were there when the mob did exactly what Donald Trump had asked them to do. Today, we needed 17 Republicans to join Democrats in standing up for our democracy and our nation’s safety. Despite a powerful case laid out by Rep. Jamie Raskin and the House Impeachment Managers, only 7 had the courage to do so. As long as I live, I will never understand how the Republican Senators who voted to acquit can reconcile themselves with the consequences of that vote, or where this will place them in history. Why run for the Senate at all, if you will be missing in action when the country really needs you? Is the job that important to leave your country defenseless to a demagogue who brought violence down on our heads? How can they fail to see that by doing so, they have enabled him to bring this same hell upon us again, and that next time it could be even worse? The last four years tried the soul of our nation and our democracy in ways we could never have imagined. But the next four might be just as consequential. Are we able to repair the damage Trump wrought, not just to our sacred Capitol but to the spirit of our great nation? Are we able to restore our democracy to what it once was? And how are we able to come together, to unite, when there is so much distrust and division? While the Senate refused to do their duty and fulfill their oaths, it is incumbent on each one of us to do our part to restore our democracy, and make it better. And that means we need to hold those Republicans who refused to do their duty accountable — to the people. So while Republicans have been throwing around the word “unity” without knowing its true meaning, you and I both know that we cannot have unity without accountability. With the vast majority of Republican Senators and Republican Members of Congress refusing to hold Trump accountable for his violent insurrection, our message to them must be clear: We will hold you accountable at the ballot box. And our work begins right now. They knew the facts — lived through them — and still voted to let him off. They have tied themselves to him again, with a cord of steel and for all of history. But for now, we focus on holding them accountable to voters. Your support will help us do so. — Adam Schiff, House of Representatives, 1st Trump Impeachment Manager
|
