Irish Times view on Trump impeachment trial: Acquitted but as guilty as hell

Twice impeached. And now twice acquitted, for lack this time of the required supermajority. Donald Trump has made a unique niche of ignominy for himself in the presidential history of the United States. But, unabashed at what he, after the Senate trial vote, called "yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country", Trump promised from his golf course in Florida a comeback, another opportunity to "make America great again". That work, he suggested to the faithful, was just beginning, a hint that he may yet run again, a possibility allowed by that acquittal.

Convention has it that acquittal means “not guilty”, exculpation. But this is no ordinary acquittal, as Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell made clear. McConnell, who has facilitated Trump rule for four years at every turn, at last tore into the former president after the acquittal which he backed only on the spurious technical ground that the Senate did not have the power to impeach after a president had left office. Cover for embarrassed Republicans unwilling to confront directly the Trump loyalist base.

Accusing Trump of a “disgraceful dereliction of duty”, McConnell furiously insisted that “there’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

His reference to “foreseeable consequence” was an important refutation of the central plank of Trump’s lawyers’ defence, the contention that his repeated exhortations to supporters to “fight” were not “incitement to insurrection”, as per the indictment, but merely usual, acceptable political speech. And it was notable that the lawyers were careful to build their case around avoiding any reference to or attempt at justifying Trump’s lies or actions, notably his ultimate mobilising claim that the election was “stolen”.

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Although the acquittal disappointed Democrats, who will certainly paint it as a moral victory, it does close one troubled chapter and enable politics to move on to the huge challenges faced by the Biden administration, from the pandemic to economic slump and climate change.

But for Republicans the chapter is far from closed. An existential challenge arises now most acutely: survival as a potential party of government, as McConnell clearly knows, now means beginning to rid itself of the man who sought unsuccessfully to hijack the country’s democracy, but has already hijacked the party itself.