Ray Hartmann

January 25, 2021

It appears the die is cast.

Barring a political miracle, Donald Trump can be expected to celebrate an abominable acquittal in the U.S. Senate sometime next month. Democrats will make a compelling case for convicting Trump in the impeachment trial over his failed coup. Then, fewer than 17 Republicans will muster the courage to join them. Trump and his minions will falsely claim exoneration and that will be that.

Like it or not, this outcome is virtually assured if the Senate proceeds as planned February 8 to place Trump on trial. The votes aren't there. The nation saw the same bad movie play out on the same Senate stage less than a year ago.

It doesn't have to be this way. Senate Democrats possess a far-more strategic path to bringing Trump to justice: Just be patient. There's no fire, no pressing deadline. Trump no longer possesses any codes more deadly than the ones to his golf clubhouse. The issue isn't whether Trump should be held accountable -- of course he must -- but rather a question of when.

The Democrats could do themselves and the nation a favor by indefinitely postponing the Trump trial until whatever strikes them as the optimal time to proceed. That might be two weeks later. It might be at the end of President Joe Biden's first hundred days.

It might be in August or next winter.

It doesn't matter how long they wait. Uncertainty over the timing of a trial would be more frightful than the outcome for the Republicans. They are the ones with a sense of urgency about the need to put all things Trump in their rearview mirrors. His trial looms over them as a Sword of Damocles.

The Republican Party is torn by civil war. The Arizona branch just censured its own sitting governor -- Doug Ducey -- along with former Senator Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, two of its best-known national figures. Outbreaks of internal GOP strife persist across the nation. No fewer than 18 of the 50 Republican senators face reelection in 2022 (two are retiring). Many would fear for their actual lives--not just their political ones--if they could be blamed for ending Trump's career....

....Further story was shortened by WM...