Trump loyalists set to defeat impeachment conviction with vote on Wednesday

WASHINGTON: Displaying the kind sycophancy and servility Americans have long ridiculed in totalitarian regimes, Republican Senators have set the stage this coming week for US President Donald Trump’s acquittal in the impeachment trial on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, paving way for a White House announcement of a visit to India later this month.
A formal vote to exonerate the impeached President (the impeachment itself by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives will stand) is likely to take place on Wednesday after the 47-strong Senate Democrats failed to get the four votes they needed from the 53-strong Republican side to call for witnesses and evidence in a trial that became a showcase for partisan politics. Even so, it would have required a two-thirds vote (67/100) in the Senate to remove the President from office, making it a long shot in any event.
Still, the fawning loyalty and disingenuous arguments which many Republican lawmakers and managers employed to defend Trump -- despite agreeing his actions may have been dodgy and he may be guilty as charged -- engendered anguished conversations about the death of democracy in America – mostly among liberals but also among some “Never-Trump” Republicans.
The hashtag #RIPGOP that trended on social media for hours on Friday soon devolved into #RIPDemocracy and #RIPAmerica, as the full impact of Republican Senators virtually investing Trump with imperial powers was discussed. Some likened the Republican-controlled Senate to Kremlin of the Soviet era. One cartoon showed the President wiping his bottom with the American flag after defecating on the US Constitution.
Republican Senators dependent for political survival and re-election on voters in thinly-populated white-majority states in Middle America who form the Trump base ignored broader polls that showed Americans by a 2-1 margin say the impeachment trial in being conducted unfairly and 75 per cent wanting to hear witness testimony.
Only two Senators, Utah’s Mitt Romney and Maine’s Susan Collins voted for witness testimony in the trial, calls for which renewed after disclosures in former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book manuscript that Trump directed him to press Ukraine to fish for dirt on his political opponents in lieu of military assistance and good relations.
But 51 other GOP Senators bailed out offering a variety of arguments ranging from charging the impeachment was partisan to “even if the President is guilty, the offense does not meet the standard to remove him from office.”
“The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday,” said Lamar Alexander, a Senator from Tennessee who not seeking re-election and is retiring at the end of the year, and who Democrats looked up to defy the Trump effect. "Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office," said Florida Senator Marco Rubio, another former Trump critic who has since fallen in line behind the President.
Trump exulted at the outcome as he headed out to his weekend retreat. “The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats keep chanting “fairness”, when they put on the most unfair Witch Hunt in the history of the US Congress…The Dems are scamming America!” the US President tweeted.

The President’s imminent acquittal now paves way for a formal White House announcement of his visit to India on February 24. The White House has held back from announcing the visit to obviate charges that it pre-judged the Senate outcome in the impeachment trial, although there is now a new bug on the horizon: the rapid spread of the coronavirus.