Trial over, but case not closed
Presiding officer Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts stands after gaveling the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump to an end in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. The U.S. Senate has acquitted Trump, ending only the third presidential trial in American history. Credit: AP
The bare facts of history have been recorded. In 2020, in the final year of his current term as president, Donald Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate. What it means and how it reverberates await the judgment of time.
We know our cloven nation heaves in great spasms, its warring sides incapable of agreement, compromise or even civil conversation. We know the impeachment process did nothing to soothe that turmoil. We also know that we have been through worse as a nation, though that thought might not be a salve right now. The Civil War, the Great Depression, the 1960s-era civil rights and anti-war battles, even the Gilded Age of the late 1800s with its yawning economic inequality, high urban unemployment, growing corporate power, economic recessions and political unrest — all were more forceful attacks on the nation's soul. And yet America has always gotten to a better place, even if the way forward at this moment is unclear.
The country is changing in profound ways — demographically, economically, politically. Trump did not cause these changes, but he is riding their wave and intensifying them with his talent for disruption. And his TV showmanship, while entertaining to those who yearn for that, makes it difficult to focus on the issues at the root of our discontent.
That was true again Wednesday, when Trump responded to his acquittal with a video tweet of campaign signs promising Trump runs for president for decades to come. Was it a disturbing echo of the monarchical power grab that has marked his tenure, a devious trolling of his critics, or both?
Trump won the battle for a verdict but it wasn't clean. He failed to fully convince several GOP senators who dubbed his conduct "wrong," "improper," and "inappropriate." And Utah's Mitt Romney, the GOP standard-bearer not that long ago of a party that may no longer exist, crossed lines and voted to convict Trump of what Romney called "an appalling abuse of public trust." The president has to live with that.
He also must know that while the trial has closed, the fact-finding is not over. The House is planning to subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton and, possibly, other witnesses with firsthand knowledge of Trump's self-dealing actions regarding Ukraine and other nations. That might be why Trump is still working to discredit the process.
Yet, the nation must move forward. We ask that Congress lead by governing. We say that knowing it is highly unlikely but it is essential. Trump talked Tuesday night about lowering prescription drug prices; such a bill was approved by the House but blocked in the Senate. Pass it. Both sides want to shore up the nation's infrastructure. Start moving. Other needed legislation is unlikely unless Democrats retake the Senate — a criminal statute barring any elected official from soliciting a foreign government for information to help win an election, statutory penalties for contempt of Congress with quick judicial review, more whistleblower protections and penalties for violating them.
Trump's impeachment has ended. The larger trial, of America itself, endures.
— The editorial board
