So, President Trump’s Second impeachment Trial has just ended, and he was acquitted. Again. If I remember well, I think it was all 48 Democrats, both Independents and 7 Republicans that said Guilty, while the other 43 Republicans that said Not Guilty. There need to be 67 votes for a conviction, and they were 10 short. ( For 2/3 majority.) There are two sides to this. One, President Trump really is guilty. Two, he isn’t. Here’s why. ( Note: In my opinion, he is guilty. But, I wanted to share both sides- possible reasons- and it’s changed my perspective a bit. )
Guilty:
We all know how bad the Capitol riots were. People were trashing and destroying everything in the building. It was chaos. President Trump did tell his supporters to go, storm the Capitol, and stop the vote-counting. He did provoke the violence that occurred. He was constantly claiming how the election was a lie and how there was voter fraud many times over the months, and his supporters agreed. This kind of just built up into a balloon and President Trump popped it. It was foreseeable- the riots- and was a possible consequence of the false statements. Even though President Trump had the right to speak his mind, it provoked violence. Plus, he is a public figure, to which many look up to.
Not Guilty:
Even though President Trump said to storm the Capitol, he had made some comments before the speech calling for peace. Michael van der Veen- one of President Trump’s attorneys- says, “…Trump had a First Amendment right to use what is largely commonplace political rhetoric, calling for his supporters to ‘fight’…” He also repeatedly claimed that President Trump’s language is almost indistinguishable from similar rhetoric used by Democrats and the media. ( From ABC news link) This is similar to saying, ” Oh, you’re killing me.” It’s metaphorical and isn’t taken literally. Senators have also said this saying they want their supporters to “fight” or they would “fight” on the Senate floor. President Trump may have been just metaphorically implying to fight but was taken seriously by his supporters.
What do you think? I personally am in the middle. I feel that President Trump was at fault for building up the amount of voter fraud claims and then provoking violence by saying to storm the Capitol. But, he could have only been metaphorically saying to fight but got taken seriously. He could have been meaning to say that we should fight for what we believe in and was implying it peacefully. He could have been taken literally and people thought he meant to fight harshly.
Anyway, I’ve got to go. I’ve just been really busy last, and this week with the DI tournament and getting the Mian and Instant Challenge solutions recorded and uploaded. Being virtual is really hard, and it really changed DI for me. This year, my team got delayed a bit and we were on a major time crunch so things were really nerve-wracking and stressful. We just submitted our Main Challenge video yesterday, and I am really tired of it. I’m hoping to catch up on relaxing and my video hours from this and last week today and tomorrow. ( I tried to make a short yet informing blog today.) Plus, it’s snowing!!!! In Texas!! It’s a flurry Valentine’s Day! I’m not sure why I wrote a paragraph on my own life in an impeachment blog, but, yeah. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, and have a wonderful long weekend!
ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-donald-trump-acquitted/story?id=75853994
CNN News: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/politics/donald-trump-impeachment-republican-vote/index.html
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/13/donald-trump-acquitted-impeachment-trial