{"id":31288,"date":"2021-02-14T13:30:44","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T12:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=31288"},"modified":"2021-02-14T13:30:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T12:30:44","slug":"after-acquittal-trump-says-our-movement-has-only-just-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=31288","title":{"rendered":"After acquittal, Trump says \u2018our movement has only just begun\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Trump slams \u2018witch hunt\u2019 impeachment trial, pledges to continue journey to achieve \u2018American greatness\u2019.<br \/><\/strong><br \/>Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, has welcomed his acquittal in a second impeachment trial, saying his political movement \u201cto Make America Great Again has only just begun\u201d.<br \/><br \/>The US Senate voted 57-43 in favour of convicting the former president on Saturday, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict him on a charge of inciting the mob that attacked the US Capitol on January 6, during the certification of Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s election win.<br \/><br \/>In a statement shortly after the acquittal, Trump called the trial \u201cyet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our nation\u201d.<br \/><br \/>\u2018Political cowardice\u2019: US reacts to Trump impeachment acquittalDonald Trump acquitted on charge of inciting US Capitol riotGeorgia begins criminal probe into Trump effort to overturn pollsUS Senate reaches deal to avert impeachment trial delay<br \/><br \/>\u201cOur historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun,\u201d he said.<br \/><br \/>\u201cIn the months ahead, I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,\u201d he added.<br \/><br \/>Trump left office on January 20, so impeachment could not be used to remove him from power.<br \/><br \/>But Democrats had hoped to secure a conviction to hold the 74-year-old responsible for the Capitol siege and set the stage for a vote to bar him from serving in public office again.<br \/><br \/>Though Trump was acquitted of the sole charge of incitement of insurrection, seven Republicans joined all Democrats to convict the former president. The figure marked the largest number of Senators to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty of an impeachment count of high crimes and misdemeanours.<br \/><br \/>They were Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.<br \/><br \/><strong>Trump\u2019s political future<\/strong><br \/><br \/>Al Jazeera\u2019s Andy Gallacher, reporting from West Palm Beach in Florida, said, \u201cThe one message from Trump\u2019 statement is that he is going nowhere.\u201d<br \/><br \/>\u201cThere is no question now that Donald Trump has political plans going forward. But what are they? Is he going to run in 2024 as many people believe? Or is he going to seek revenge on those seven Republicans who voted against him?\u201d<br \/><br \/>Trump is only the third president ever to be impeached by the House of Representatives \u2013 a step akin to a criminal indictment \u2013 as well as the first to be impeached twice and the first to face an impeachment trial after leaving office.<br \/><br \/>But the Senate still has never convicted an impeached president.<br \/><br \/>After Saturday\u2019s verdict, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted \u201cnot guilty,\u201d in the trial, offered scathing remarks about Trump.<br \/><br \/>\u201cThere is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.\u201d<br \/><br \/>McConnell suggested that Trump could still face criminal prosecution for his acts, however.<br \/><br \/>\u201cPresident Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t get away with anything. Yet.\u201d<br \/><br \/>The minority leader was not the only Republican to castigate Trump for his behaviour after voting for acquittal.<br \/><br \/>\u201cThe question I must answer is not whether President Trump said and did things that were reckless and encouraged the mob. I believe that happened,\u201d Senator Rob Portman in a statement.<br \/><br \/>\u201cMy decision was based on my reading of the Constitution,\u201d the Ohio Republican added. \u201cI believe the Framers understood that convicting a former president and disqualifying him or her from running again pulls people further apart.\u201d<br \/><br \/>Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate\u2019s most senior Republican, described Trump\u2019s language in a fiery speech to supporters just before the Capitol assault as \u201cextreme, aggressive and irresponsible\u201d. But he said the Senate had no jurisdiction to hold a trial, agreed with Trump\u2019s legal team that the former president deserved more \u201cdue process\u201d and said the prosecution had not made their case.<br \/><br \/>\u2018<strong>Serious problem\u2019<\/strong><br \/><br \/>Claire Finkelstein, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, said most of the Republicans who had voted to convict Trump were politicians who were not planning to run for office again.<br \/><br \/>\u201cThose who are steadfast in insisting on the innocence of Donald Trump here are primarily those with political ambitions. They have fused themselves to Donald Trump. And he will control the agenda. And it gives him a wonderful platform from which to run again in 2024,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<br \/><br \/>McConnel has a \u201cserious problem keeping his party together\u201d, she said, which is why the Senate Republican leader voted \u201cnot guilty\u201d despite later rebuking Trump and holding responsible for the storming of the US capitol.<br \/><br \/>Despite the apparent division within Republican ranks, Al Jazeera\u2019s Gallacher said the outcome of Saturday\u2019s vote demonstrated that the Republican Party still belonged to Trump.<br \/><br \/>\u201cThe impact of this man can\u2019t be overstated,\u201d said Gallacher.<br \/><br \/>\u201cOver the last few years, he managed to remake the entire Republican Party in his own image.<br \/><br \/>\u201cBut the question is if that the image the Republican Party wants going forward? Also, what elections can they win when he appeals to a large majority of people, who tend to be white, non-college-educated people? You can\u2019t win elections in the future with such a small demographic in a country like this that is changing so rapidly.\u201d<br \/><br \/>\u25aa\ufe0e <strong>SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES<\/strong><br \/><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump slams \u2018witch hunt\u2019 impeachment trial, pledges to continue journey to achieve \u2018American greatness\u2019.Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, has welcomed his acquittal in a second impeachment trial, saying his political movement \u201cto Make America Great Again has only just begun\u201d. The US Senate voted 57-43 in favour of convicting the former [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[1756,142,33],"class_list":["post-31288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-acquitted","tag-senate","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}