After 3 p.m. local time on the 13th the U.S. Senate voted on the impeachment clause accusing former President Trump of “sedition”. With the yes vote not reaching the two-thirds majority required for the conviction, Trump was not convicted and the impeachment trial was completed.
On the 13th, the Senate’s impeachment trial of Trump entered its fifth day. That morning, the Senate suddenly held a vote and passed a “proceeding motion for evidence” by 55 to 45, which meant that the Senate would call witnesses and access documents during the trial stage.
This brings variables to trials that were expected to be “quick and quick”. Many media analysts say that if witnesses are summoned, the final verdict may not be released on the 13th local time.
However, within the following two hours, the prosecution and defense reached an agreement and decided not to call witnesses. So, after closing statements from both sides, the Senate essentially began voting on the impeachment clause accusing Trump of “sedition” after 3 p.m. as originally planned.
The final vote was: 43 votes found innocent and 57 votes found guilty. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the Senate trial requires more than two-thirds of the votes, that is, at least 67 votes, to be convicted.
In the end, Trump was not convicted and the impeachment trial was over. The Senate also did not vote again on whether to ban Trump from holding any public office in the future.
CCTV reporter Xu Qian: In just five days, the U.S. Senate’s impeachment of former President Trump came to an end. Although Trump was not eventually convicted or banned from running for office, public opinion believes that the second impeachment of Trump further exposed the growing political polarization and social division in the United States, and the confrontation between the two parties has become more acute. And the contradictions accumulated by the United States for a long time have caused an inadvertible tear in society.
[News Link] Trump was impeached for the second time
In December 2019, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives launched the first impeachment against then-President Trump, accusing him of abuse of power and obstructing Congress. Senate Republicans subsequently rejected the impeachment clause by seat margin. Trump was not convicted. Democrats used this as a second impeachment against Trump after the protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 this year.
A total of five people were killed in the impact on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. On January 13, the Democratic majority House of Representatives voted to pass an impeachment clause against then-President Trump, accusing him of “sedition” in the incident, making Trump the first president in American history to be impeached by the House twice.
On January 20, new President Biden was sworn in and Trump stepped down.
On January 25, House Democrats sent the impeachment case accusing former President Trump of “sedition” to the Senate for trial.
On January 26, a Republican senator filed a motion to vote on the whole house to lift the impeachment on the grounds that “Trump has left office and the Senate is unconstitutional to hear impeachment at this time”, but it was not passed. The vote showed that 50 Democrats and 5 Republicans thought it was unconstitutional to hear the impeachment case, while the remaining 45 Republicans objected.
On February 4, Democratic Rep. Ruskin wrote to Trump on behalf of the impeachment “manager” team, asking him to personally testify and be questioned about the January 6 impact on Congress, but Trump’s lawyer team later wrote back to reject the request, saying that Democrats’ move proved that they “can’t testify against Trump. Evidence of universality.
On February 9, the Senate officially launched the impeachment trial. On that day, the “manager” team of the House impeachment case as the prosecution and the Trump lawyer team as the defense held a four-hour debate on the constitutionality of “trial impeachment cases”. After the debate, the Senate held a plenary vote and confirmed that the “trial is constitutional” by a vote of 56:44.
According to the previous agreement, the impeachment case enters the public debate stage from the 10th, and then enters the senator’s questioning and deliberation process.
The second impeachment highlights the political polarization and social division of the United States.
In the past four years, many decrees introduced by Trump during his presidency of the United States have triggered a huge division in the United States. The polarization of American society has intensified, and the tearing of many aspects such as politics and culture has intensified. The violent impact on Congress on January 6 this year is the most prominent “ptomosis”.
U.S. media analysis believes that although Trump was not convicted in the end, his second impeachment further exposed the growing political polarization and social division of the United States, and may have some influence on the future political direction of the United States.
During Trump’s term, the contradictions and antagonism between the republican and democracy have intensified, the space for cooperation between the two sides has been continuously squeezed, and partisan interests transcend the interests of the country and the people. Even when the COVID-19 epidemic ravaged the United States and caused painful loss of life and property, it is still difficult for the two parties to put aside their differences and build consensus. During the crisis, the political chaos in the United States increased, and the system failure became more obvious, and the violent shock of Congress on January 6 tore off the last “fig leaf”.
The Washington Post has commented that on the surface, the shock on Congress is an extreme action launched by Trump supporters because they refused to accept the election results. Essentially, this reflects that the contradictions accumulated by the United States for a long time have caused unrepending tearing society.
This split in American society constitutes the “bottom color” of the second impeachment trial. In the eyes of most Republicans, Democrats’ push for a second impeachment trial is still for political purposes. The Wall Street Journal said that the Democrats want to further divide the Republican Party through the impeachment trial.
There are also concerns that impeaching Trump again is a “double-edged sword” and that Democrats’ pursuit of “bone scraping treatment” will exacerbate the tearing of the country.
Gun Dealer Scott Pickett: I’m worried about where the country is going. If it goes on like this, they will push the people into another civil war.
Democratic Supporter Mark Haiter: If half of the people in this country decide to start chasing Democrats, I don’t want to be a victim. To be honest, I never thought it would be like this before this presidential election.
Interviewer: Do you really think there is such a possibility?
Democratic supporter Mark Haite: Of course.
American people: Impeachment is meaningless and drags down the fight against the epidemic.
After the results of the second impeachment trial against Trump were released, the American people discussed. Many people said that this impeachment was meaningless, purely a waste of taxpayers’ money, and also wasting the time spent by the United States to fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. Some netizens said, “These politicians are wasting taxpayers’ money with impeachment, but people are still cheering for it.”
Some netizens believe that from the first impeachment of Trump, the fight between Democrats and Republicans has distracted the United States from fighting the epidemic. Some netizens also said that “the result of impeachment disappointed the American people”. Some netizens also said that at present, American society is seriously torn, and people need to unite. ( CCTV reporter Xu You)
