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Dear Friend,
On Saturday, House managers for Donald Trump's impeachment trial tried to introduce witnesses based on revelations late last week that members of Congress heard Trump side with the rioters at the Capitol Building.
In retaliation, Senate Republicans threatened to block Joe Biden's entire agenda, with one saying, "They won't get their noms, they won't get anything."1
Yesterday's vote laid bare one irrefutable fact: Senate Republicans continue to put party loyalty above our democracy, no matter what the threat to our Constitution or the American people.
And just as these senators obstructed impeachment, they are likely to spend the next two years exploiting the filibuster and obstructing efforts to fix our economy and the COVID crisis and forward other progressive causes.
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Trump's team didn't begin to put on a believable defense. His lawyers could not answer when they were asked when Trump found out about the attack on the Capitol. They couldn't say what if any steps he took to put it to an end to it. And they even tried to blame the right-wing attack on the Capitol Building on antifa.
But we weren’t shocked by Trump’s lawyers' lies and cover-ups—we expected those.
What is jaw-droppingly outrageous is that 43 senators sat through this trial and still sided with Trump against our democracy.
They didn't just defend Trump's role in the attack on the Capitol.
Trump spent months trying to overturn the legitimate results of the election—including through potentially illegal tactics, like pressuring Georgia election officials to manipulate vote totals. Trump's phone call to those officials is now the subject of a new criminal investigation.2 But the vast majority of Senate Republicans voted to acquit him anyway.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that there is nothing Trump could have done that would rise to an impeachable offense for many of these senators, because party loyalty has risen above all else, including their responsibility to the Constitution and the United States. That is truly dangerous.
Senators like Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley will go right from voting to acquit Trump to using the filibuster to stop a progressive agenda, including voting rights legislation, in order to protect Trump’s legacy. We already saw it happen yesterday.
Demand Progress is mobilizing to eliminate the filibuster and achieve other crucial reforms in Congress to save our democracy. But we can’t do it without your help.
Will you donate to Demand Progress today and stop far-right extremism in the Senate?
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. The New York Times, "Takeaways From Day 5 of Trump’s Impeachment Trial," February 13, 2021
2. The New York Times, "Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Inquiry Into Trump’s Efforts to Subvert Election," February 10, 2021
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