The Daily Fuckup

The Senate’s vote was over on Feb. 13, 2021. What came next was the harder part for Republicans: explaining how they could vote to acquit Donald Trump and still leave on the record their own condemnation of the conduct that led to the Capitol attack.

Some of that tension was visible in the floor speeches themselves. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking the events of Jan. 6, while arguing the Senate could not convict a former president after he had left office. Sen. Mike Lee, in a separate statement, said he did not condone Trump’s words, actions or omissions surrounding Jan. 6, but still concluded that acquittal was the only outcome he believed fit the Constitution and the law. Those were not identical arguments, but they pointed to the same political fact: a vote to acquit did not require a vote to defend Trump’s behavior. citeturn0search0turn0search1

That matters because the acquittal did not wipe the trial record clean. The House managers’ evidence remained part of the public record, and the Senate’s decision did not amount to a finding that Trump had done nothing wrong. It simply meant the chamber did not reach the two-thirds threshold needed to convict and remove him from office. Republicans could press their constitutional objections all they wanted. They still had to live with the language their own members used to describe the attack. citeturn0search0turn0search1turn0search2

The result was a familiar post-Trump split: legal cover on one side, moral condemnation on the other. That combination may have been enough to protect individual senators from the charge that they excused Jan. 6. It did not make the party’s position clean. It made it divided. And for Republicans trying to close the book on impeachment, the problem was obvious: the record was still open, and their own words kept reminding voters why the case was there in the first place. citeturn0search0turn0search1