Turns out there was a bi-partisan vote in Trump's impeachment trial, only it didn't turn out the way most people expected it to. In an emotional and stirring speech on the floor of the United States Senate, Mitt Romney, the former 2012 Republican presidential nominee and now junior senator from Utah, not only announced he was going to vote guilty, he blew up every single defense that Trump's legal team used during the trial. But more than that, he showed his party that having a spine and a soul is still possible, even in the age of Trump. Below is the text of Romney's speech in pertinent part.
The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.Last year, I wrote a piece in which I speculated what might've been had Romney, and not Barack Obama, won the 2012 election. And though we will never know for sure how Romney would've governed, based on the words he chose yesterday and the manner in which he has comported himself during these proceedings, I think it's safe to say he would've been ten times the man and president this carpet bagger has been.
What he did was not perfect. No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.
Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history’s rebuke and the censure of my own conscience.
I acknowledge that my verdict will not remove the president from office. The results of this Senate court will, in fact, be appealed to a higher court, the judgment of the American people. Voters will make the final decision, just as the president’s lawyers have implored. My vote will likely be in the minority in the Senate, but irrespective of these things, with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability believing that my country expected it of me.
I will only be one name among many, no more, no less, to future generations of Americans who look at the record of this trial. They will note merely that I was among the senators who determined that what the president did was wrong, grievously wrong. We are all footnotes at best in the annals of history, but in the most powerful nation on Earth, the nation conceived in liberty and justice, that distinction is enough for any citizen.
But while Romney will surely pay a heavy price for his act of bravery, he was not, by any means, the only senator in that chamber who did the right thing yesterday. Of the four red-state Democrats who voted to convict, one of them - Doug Jones - will almost certainly suffer the harshest penalty, and soon. Jones is up for reelection in Alabama this fall. Prior to the trial he was facing an uphill battle to retain his seat. That battle has now been rendered all but academic. Barring a miracle, I fully expect this to be a Republican pickup come 2021.
There will, no doubt, be a good many Monday morning quarterbacks who will question the decision of House Democrats to move forward with an impeachment inquiry, knowing that the prospects for Trump's removal in the Senate were slim to none. Let me put that to bed right now. To have ignored what this president did would've been a betrayal of the very oath they swore to uphold as members of Congress. Further, the message it would send to future administrations - that it is okay to extort foreign governments for personal political ends - would've caused irrevocable harm to the reputation of the United States.
The charges against Trump were never seriously contested by his legal team, nor for that matter the vast majority of Republican congressmen and senators. The fact that several of them publicly admitted that his conduct, while not rising to the level of an impeachable offense, was nevertheless wrong, only goes to show that they knew full well he was guilty. One wonders what wrongful conduct he would have to commit in order for them to follow Romney's lead. Would he literally have to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue to be removed from office? I doubt even that would suffice.
And for those who insist that had John Bolton testified, things would've been different, let me also put that to bed. There was never going to be any smoking gun that would've resulted in twenty Republican senators voting to convict. Not even a tape of Trump himself admitting he did it - like the one Nixon made - would've been enough to sway them. The GOP is now completely owned by this president, lock, stock and barrel. There is a price to be paid for entering into a Faustian bargain with a man like Trump. Like Faust himself discovered, the reward you ultimately reap, in exchange for your soul, is eternity in hell.
We do not as of yet know how all this will play out. It is quite likely that Trump will go on cheating his way to another four years in office, perhaps longer. That's what despots do. They fix it so that they stay in power. Remember, it took him less than 24 hours after Robert Mueller testified in front of Congress to place that call to Ukrainian President Zelinsky. There's absolutely nothing in Trump's history to suggest that he has the capacity to learn from his mistakes. Indeed, he often brags that he has never made any.
And if you're thinking that Trump will somehow be chastened by being impeached, consider that he used the National Prayer Breakfast this morning as a platform to bash Democrats and Romney. Let me repeat that in case you weren't paying attention: Trump used a prayer breakfast historically devoted to love and forgiveness to go on a rant against his enemies. At one point he held up a newspaper with a headline that read "Acquitted." Unlike Bill Clinton, who at least asked for forgiveness from the American people, there is no remorse or humility to be found anywhere within the man. Mark my words, he fully intends to exact revenge on the people who did this to him, and he could care less the damage it will do to the country.
We are witnessing the systematic destruction of the greatest experiment in representative democracy the world has ever known. It is incumbent upon brave people of all persuasions to do all they can to preserve what is left of it before it is too late.
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