By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
Well …
Let’s just start by acknowledging that Donald John Trump has crossed into the realm of “history-making president.”
The U.S. House of Representatives today impeached Trump for the second time in his single term as president of the United States. That’s for the history books, man.
Here’s another history-making aspect: 10 Republican House members joined their Democratic colleagues in casting “yes” votes on impeachment.
Is the president standing tall today after this event? Hardly.
He will walk out of the White House for the final time no later than Jan. 19, when he high-tails it to Florida a day ahead of President Biden’s inaugural.
I reject the notion that this impeachment is overly divisive, or that it tears at the nation’s quest for unity. Donald Trump has done a marvelous job all by himself of widening the divide among Americans. The vote today — 232-197 — does not signal an increase in that chasm. To me it merely signals the start of another political era, one that highlights restoration of the presidency.
To be sure, there now will be a Senate trial. It will occur after Trump is gone. I am not even close to believing that the Senate will muster up the two-thirds majority it needs to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection,” but it might.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the leading Senate Republican, expressed support for impeachment. That means he could vote to convict Trump of inciting that riot on Capitol Hill. Were he to make that declaration ahead of a vote, it could provide some form of political cover for other Republican senators who otherwise might want to hide in the weeds.
To my ears, I heard nothing that gave me pause for supporting Trump’s impeachment today. All I heard from many of Trump’s defenders were “what about” arguments from those who said, “What about those protests last summer?” or “What about Democrats who endorsed the violence then?”
What happened then has nothing to do with what Donald Trump did this past week? He incited a mob to storm the seat of our democratic government and to seek to overturn the results of a free and fair election.
For that act, Donald Trump made history today by becoming the nation’s first-ever two-time impeached president.
Nice going, Mr. President. Now … get the hell out of my house!