Former US president Donald J Trump has escaped his impeachment as the senate votes to not impeach him by a count of 57 guilty, 43 not guilty, with seven Republican senators voting to have him impeached.
Why is he acquitted if the guilty had the majority? Well, in US politics, the rules are in order to impeach a president and in this case a former US president, you have to have 2/3rds of the vote in th senate.
So, Donald Trump escapes for now, or did he? Well he escaped a US government sanction, and if he was found guilty, it would have barred him for looking for any possibility of running for a district alderman let alone the most powerful seat in the country.
So to some, mainly politicians in the Democratic party, to try to impeach him when he already left office had great merit- it would hae barred him from standing as a candidate in another election anywhere.
The Republicans did not want that for two main reasons:
- They don’t want on their legacy that they impeached a Republican president; and
- They are afraid of losing the Trump supporters, of whom are legion.
The latter point is more practical than anything else. As dangerous as what Trump did, inciting people to rise up and storm Washington DC, putting those same senators at risk of being attacked and maybe more, they still are looking at using those same people who stormed the capital for votes in the next round of elections. Unbelievable!
But for Mr Trump, he has other problems on his hand now as he has possible federal court judges to answer to and that is another kettle of fish. No one, and I mean NO. ONE, is absolved form facing American justice form what we have seen in America. Someone will indict you, sooner or later. Very litigious they are.
So, while we should be helping President Joe Biden stamp out this coronavirus that is killing people by the hundreds, we are still stuck, trying to deal with the spill over from previous president Trump.