“If the President throws a fit, you must acquit.”

Those may not have been Mitch McConnell’s exact words, but they might as well have been. McConnell, Cory Gardner, and all but one other Republican senator voted yesterday to acquit Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment.

Gardner said it had taken him several months to reach a decision. By that account, his soul-searching must have begun last fall—when he was headlining a fundraiser for Trump’s reelection.

The plain truth: Gardner’s decision was never in doubt. Who needs witnesses when you don’t want evidence?

There was one question Gardner couldn’t escape. A reporter put it to him on camera: “Is it appropriate for the President to ask a foreign leader to investigate a political rival?”

Gardner again refused to say. But his votes spoke volumes.

The Senate issued its verdict. Now it’s your turn.

Andrew Romanoff