The pending prosecution of former President Donald Trump has Republicans caught between a rock and a hard place as they look to chart their political future, strategists say.
“A number of Republicans don’t want to take this vote because they don’t want to offend the (former) president and his supporters,” Republican strategist Ryan Williams said. “Voting to convict has the potential to hurt you in a primary. Voting to acquit him has the potential to hurt you in a general election. … You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Not a single U.S. House Republican voted in favor of Trump’s initial impeachment in 2019. Former Massachusetts governor and current Utah U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney was the sole Republican senator to vote in favor of conviction the first time.
But after the deadly U.S. Capitol riot in January, 10 GOP representatives joined their Democratic colleagues in voting in favor of impeaching Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”
Five GOP senators — Romney and U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania — then voted against a Republican-led attempt to dismiss Trump’s second impeachment trial as unconstitutional.
That procedural move could foreshadow more GOP senators voting to convict Trump this time around. But Williams said numbers likely won’t add up to the 17 Republicans who would need to join the Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to make a conviction stick.
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U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., seemed to echo that sentiment when he told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “the outcome is not really in doubt.”
Still, Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Democrats want to forge ahead with the trial in part to “create a divide within the Republican base between traditional GOP voters and Trump voters, because they are concerned that if the GOP gets its act together, that (the Democrats are) probably going to lose the House and could conceivably lose the Senate.”
Many Republicans have seized on the notion that trying Trump would be unconstitutional because he’s no longer in office — the same argument presented by his legal team.
Trump’s attorneys also argue his conduct surrounding the Capitol riot is protected by the First Amendment.
But a group of more than 140 constitutional lawyers and scholars — including Harvard’s Laurence Tribe and several others from the Boston area — dismissed the First Amendment defense as “legally frivolous” in a letter posted by the New York Times. And they said the First Amendment “does not prevent the Senate from convicting President Trump and disqualifying him from holding future office.”
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An elephant never forgets, A RINO can’t seem to remember.
RINOs aren’t smart enough to LEARN something so they have something to forget…
They’d first off, have to CARE about learning, to remember something.
“Many Republicans have seized on the notion that trying Trump would be unconstitutional because he’s no longer in office.”
That Constitution….So full of silly “notions”, like, Freedom.
AND i wonder, how many of them are ONLY NOW SAYING that, cause they’ve seen the SHEER HATRED we have for them, over the past 3 months, and are DEARLY HOPING if they vote NO on his impeachment now, they PRAY WE will forget the REST of their backstabbing treason, and re-vote them back into office in 2022/24 etc?
Trump supporters will remember what GOP does in impeachment proceedings
I certainly will !!
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Democrats want to forge ahead with the trial in part to “create a divide within the Republican base between traditional GOP voters and Trump voters, because they are concerned that if the GOP gets its act together, that (the Democrats are) probably going to lose the House and could conceivably lose the Senate.”
I wouldn’t concern myself with the Republican Party getting their act together, that is highly unlikely. They have already alienated 70+ Million Trump voters.
As masters of the Political Firing Circle, it is a fait accompli.
We all should!
” Voting to acquit him has the potential to hurt you in a general election”. How is voting to acquit Trump, going to hurt anyone in a general election, when Trump has over 80% support from Republicans? Nice try, Ryan Williams. Did you take a Republican In Name Only pill?
Wearing those masks won’t help them. We know who they are. Vote with the Democrats and you will lose the GOP voters.
It used to be that the Republicans and the Democrats had the same goals for our country, just different ways of achieving those goals. We wanted good schools, we wanted low unemployment, We wanted a good living standard.
Now the Republicans want those things. The Democrats are looking toward their goal of getting rich and lording over the people.
.
By 2022 primary season, WE need to infiltrate and take over the local party ,machines.
THAT is where the candidates come from.
Gather your friends and capture the Grassroots and CONTROL your State party machines.
President Trump can’t reach down that low, but he can control the top levels.
More like, there is no real DIFFERENCE anymore, between a republican and a demon-rat.. THEY ALL DON’T care about WE the people anymore, just keeping their feifdom in congress, and Shanking WE the people over..
I am not sure that you can claim the “republicans want those things”, actions show they are not concerned about the republic or the citizens of the republic.
I am all for them wearing masks, to hide their ugly, evil faces! Would be even better if the RINO’s/Demonrats would wear a sack over their heads and we not have to look at them at all! Better yet, they be the ones impeached/voted out!
Too bad the masks are not effective at muzzling.
Pity we can’t seal the masks on their face, permanently!
they are all losers they love getting there *** kicked by democrats like taking candy from a baby.
i wrote senators and congressmen i have got nada a reply from these cowards who get paid with my tax money
and then stab me in my back.
ask yourselves something folks. why do these people spend millions to get elected to a job that pays roughly 400,000 a year?
dirty pool my friends.
Cause it PAYS more than just that 400k.. There’s all the dosh from the big lobbyiests, the pacs and such..
POWER OVER THE PEOPLE!!!… why did you as…
oh, that was rhetorical wasn’t it?….
sorry.
Any Republican candidate that was against President Trump will face a primary
that will crush them as a political rat. The steal will remain in our minds forever.
Maybe Divine intervention will happen, gutless courts failed America and now
the Demonrats must pay the piper…………William
I am not really sure it matters, the gop is already dead, the impeachment in the house was a sham shoved thru quickly before facts could come out, had to be some kind of speed record. The senate is a sham as well, HOW do you justify attempting to impeach a PRIVATE CITIZEN, anybody? A partisan senator as the judge, no supposedly neutral Supreme Court Justice? Explain to me again what the hell is going on here, it did not take any time at all for the communist/democrat party to destroy what little is left of a Republic and turn it into a Banana Republic. But if the vote is close in the senate, never ever underestimate the ignorance of mittens romney.
The GOP Rinos keep forgetting that they represent us. I don’t care what their opinion on a situation is. They are suppose to vote the way we want them to. The problem is they don’t know, nor do they care, what we think or believe.
More like they don’t CARE to represent us.
The constitution no longer comes into play now that they have stolen our freedom, livelihoods, childrens minds, religious liberties and any other secure action Americans have fought and died for. Damn shame the lives that have been given for freedom and these rogues are so cock sure they can force Americans into submission. When their day comes we know they will be the ones suffering for eternity with their gnashing and gnawing in misery. satan is so proud of his children (fools).
I was going to suggest that they vote on principle rather than on their own careers — but then I remembered that most of them have no principles.
I feel civil war coming soon to a White House near you !
People have been saying a “civil war is coming”, for years (since at least 2015).. How much longer are we to wait before it kicks off???
Hey Biden take your covid money and shove it where the sun don’t shine you traitor!
What is happening is NOT “pending procecution” but continuous persecution.
The “crime” Trump committed was to Make America Great Again in opposition to the globalist and communists who are intent on destroying America for their own financial and egotical purposes. These “never Trumpers” prefer slavery of We, the People and for them to pick up all of the scraps after America us obliterated. In order for their plan to work, the Constitution must be erased or ignored or disobeyed.
Ours is the fight to protect America from the billionaires and the rioters they fund from killing all hints of freedom and self-respect.
WELL said!
“Isolate – Marginalize – Ridicule” –Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals
The perennial Leftist messaging psy-op is to convince conservatives that their views are out of touch (ridicule), and that they are part of a tiny minority (marginalize) surrounded by people with the “Correct” views (isolate). Why even bother voting when “everybody” is going to vote for the other guy? Why even risk expressing your opinions in public when “everybody” will shun you in response?
Today, AntiSocial Media suppresses the sharing of conservative opinions (Isolate) and “cancels” those who stand their ground (marginalize), while breathlessly repeating the “Trump is unpopular” mantra and ridiculing anyone who even hints to the contrary.
Meanwhile, Marxists in Congress are trying desperately to disqualify Trump from holding office in the future. They hope you don’t recognize the incongruity–and if you do, they’re counting on AntiSocial Media and social pressure in general to suppress you from pointing it out to others.