PD Editorial: A day of reckoning for Donald Trump

For just the fourth time in American history, a presidential impeachment trial is set to begin.

While the outcome appears to be preordained, this trial will not be a wasted exercise or a case of partisan excess. It is instead a necessary reckoning for Donald Trump, who placed his interests squarely before those of the American people, disgracing himself and the presidency.

Trump’s unwavering refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election upended 224 years of peaceful transitions of power.

But this trial isn’t about peevish behavior. It’s about accountability for a violent assault on American democracy, orchestrated by the 45th president of the United States.

Trump summoned supporters to Washington on Jan. 6, the day Congress was obligated by law to formally accept the electoral votes that would end his presidency. Frenzied supporters went to the U.S. Capitol because Trump told them to — and they rioted because he told them to. “If you don’t fight like hell,” he said, “you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Some of Trump’s supporters came armed with stun guns and pepper spray and restraints. A makeshift gallows went up outside the Capitol, a mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” and rioters forced their way inside, searching for members of Congress and the vice president. Five people, including a police officer, were killed. Trump watched it all on TV for hours before making a meek plea for peace.

A week later, the House impeached Trump for the second time.

In a legal brief outlining their case for the trial, the House impeachment managers declared: “If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be.”

Ten Republicans joined the vote to charge Trump with inciting violence — the most votes in favor of impeachment ever cast by members of a president’s own party.

At least 17 Senate Republicans would have to join the vote to convict Trump. That seems increasingly unlikely, with GOP senators arguing interchangeably that Trump was exercising his First Amendment free speech rights or that he can’t be tried after leaving office.

Neither contention stands up to scrutiny. Public officials are accountable for their what they say, beginning with their oath to defend the Constitution. There is precedent for moving forward with an impeachment trial after the accused, a Cabinet secretary in the Grant administration, resigned.

Allowing an official to avoid an impeachment trial by quickly resigning, or in Trump’s case because his term expired, would nullify one of the potential sanctions for conviction: being permanently barred from public again. As things stand, Trump could run for president again in 2024. If his performance in office doesn’t disqualify him, the contempt he has shown for the judgment of the American electorate should.

Trump can never escape the ignominy of being the first, and we hope only, president to be impeached twice. Yet to be held fully accountable, and to send a message to any other would-be autocrats, Trump must stand trial in the Senate.

Americans should listen carefully to the evidence presented by the House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers. We’re confident people will recognize Trump’s culpability for the Jan. 6 insurrection and his unfitness to hold office again. Whatever the official verdict, let this be the final chapter of Trump’s political career.

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