The Morning Dispatch: Acquitted Again

In the end, 43 Republicans stuck with the former president.

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826

Happy Monday! Bet you didn’t think you were getting a TMD today because of the holiday. Wrong!

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • The Senate voted over the weekend to acquit Donald Trump on impeachment charges of inciting rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol. Fifty-seven senators voted to convict the former president—including Republican Sens. Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey—falling ten votes short of the two-thirds threshold.

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued step-by-step guidelines for schools to return to in-person learning. The guidelines—which are not binding for schools—do not stipulate teachers need to be vaccinated prior to schools reopening, but do recommend schools continue virtual or hybrid approaches until community spread falls below specific levels.

  • Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, was sworn in as Italy’s prime minister over the weekend after the previous government—headed by Giuseppe Conte—collapsed last month.

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  1. Avatar photo
    O.M.G. calling from Vaudeville, AZ

    What I think the outcome of the impeachment trial says about the Republican Party is that the GOP IS BIPOLAR. The right side of the party is officially a deadender, true believer, Trump cult and the left side suffers from a moral paralysis to confront its own problems head on. Breaking up is hard when you still love someone who has done an awful, unforgivable thing, like cheat on you with your best friend. But in reality, a vocal minority, majority of the GOP, who all have an equal right to suffrage, are what our former, shallow, glib President black labeled them correctly: Bitter clingers, to their god and guns....moving pictures broadcast live, worldwide, on January 6, 2021 proved the American Idol Barack Star Obama was seeing things clearly about our not better half years ago. I pray that our former President is indicted and convicted for his “perfect phone call” to Big Ben down in Georgia, for a harder break from our split brain must be on the horizon. Brian Sicknick R.I.P.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I am off to my wife's pharmacy, to surprise her by scraping her windshield tonight. Before I go, remember today is a federal holiday to commemorate the presidency of Donald Trump and 44 others before him. But if you wanna celebrate # 46 (even though he is not a former), that'd be okay too.

    Me, I would have made it Washington-Lincoln day, but someone wanted to commemorate the other 43 as well, so who am I to complain?

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  3. Avatar photo
    David M

    Thanks guys for your great reporting!

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  4. Avatar photo
    Angie

    At least one person, probably more said what I would say about the QTD...

    So, Good Evening fellow posters, hope those where there are serious winter storms hang in there ( I am one...lol) and stay safe

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  5. Sue Robinson

    "What do you think the outcome of the impeachment trial says about the Republican Party?" I think it says that the party is irrevocably Trumpian. Even if Donald Trump himself falls by the wayside (and at the moment, it doesn't look like he's going to), I think a similar leader will rise in his place (perhaps it will even be one of his children.) The GOP as it once was is GONE, and the party that is standing in its place will lead us into authoritarianism if they regain power.

    I live in a Red state (Indiana), and I understand conservative values, but our senators, Todd Young and Mike Braun, sold their souls this past week-end to retain popular support among Trump's base. The ironic thing is, in a state as deeply Republican as this one is, I believe they could still have won in the next election EVEN if they voted to convict Trump. Nearly all of rural Indiana is solidly Republican, and most would not vote for a Democrat if one were walking down the street handing out money and free beer. (Not that I'm suggesting a Democrat WOULD do this, just that it wouldn't help him if he did!)

    Trump has the GOP by the short ones, and it is either going to mean the end of the party or the end of our country. I'm hoping that it's the party that goes! (And for those interested, I am an independent voter who long ago was a registered Republican but left the party even before Trump made an appearance because I felt the GOP wasn't making an effort to understand a demographically changing America.) And much like some of the other commenters I have seen posted here, I salute the courage of the 7 Republicans who broke ranks and voted country over party. I plan to contribute to their re-election campaigns in the future as a personal thanks for their integrity.

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  6. Diane Francis

    My take on the Impeachment fiasco: https://dianefrancis.substack.com/

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    Wayner

    I don't care what the GOP does with Trump. If they want to hang on to him, it's their problem, 100%. He's out of office, and 58% of those polled say he deserved conviction. There is no way he can win a fairly conducted national election.

    What worries me now is how state-level GOP will attempt to pervert the rules of the next elections, inspired on *their own* fabricated, widely spread, debunked lies about "voter fraud". These miscreants are now working their asses off to determine how to thwart democracy, and make it *look* totally legal. They must be stopped, cold.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Jen

    Ben Sasse explains his impeachment vote in a local radio interview.
    https://www.iheart.com/podcast/139-scott-voorhees-27091316/episode/sen-sasse-on-his-impeachment-vote-77671385/?cmp=web_share&embed=true

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    1. Avatar photo
      Jen

      In another local Nebraska news interview Sasse was asked about rumors of a break away party forming and he pretty much poured cold water on him ever being part of something like that. He says the Republican Party can win elections and he wants to reinvigorate what the party has stood for.

      Reading between the lines there I think he’s worried about the GOP becoming even more Trumpy. And knows historically 3rd parties don’t do very well or win much of anything. And maybe he’s also wary of some of the people involved in this 3rd party talk because they’re not very conservative and are pushing for something more moderate. I think the GOP is rotten to the core right now. I’m not sure it can be fixed from within. But at the same time I don’t trust those allegedly involved with this movement for a new party. If I had to choose I would choose trying to fix the GOP from within and rid it of the crazies.

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  9. P Satter

    Just a reminder when speaking of the GOP. The following are also part of the Republican Party: Cheney, Katko, Upton, Herrera-Beutler, Kinzinger, Newhouse, Gonzalez, Rice, Meijer, Valadao, Burr, Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, Toomey. I see their actions as a more hopeful sign. There is much to be said for having stood by the right decision in the face of opposition.

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      Pat Riot

      They are a hopeful sign for humanity, but a pretty grim sign for the GOP. Most of them are being censured and ostracized by their state parties, and it's doubtful most of them--if any--will survive their primary challenges.

      Kinzinger is even being disowned from his family...

      https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/us/politics/adam-kinzinger-republicans-trump.html

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      1. P Satter

        Herrera-Beutler is from an adjoining state to my own, and have followed the backlash from her state party mechanism, so I agree about ostracism.
        However, she has the support of many others in her district which went for Biden, but still elected her against a very well-funded Democratic challenger. Time will tell, but I think Trump and his followers (ardent or ambivalent) will become less popular with time and the brave decision to break with him early will age well. Those who are trying to stay in his good graces will eventually regret it.

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          Pat Riot

          I hope so, but man oh man read that letter Kinzinger got from his cousins... They don't look ready to move on *ever*....

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          1. P Satter

            Yeah, that's too bad. Sounds like cousins, at least, not his parents.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Jen

    So I have a question. If not having to face re-election in ‘22 is the reason is the reason Collins, Cassidy and Sasse voted to convict how do you explain all the other GOP senators who just got re-elected (or aren’t up until ‘24) voting to acquit?

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