THE screaming headlines had predicted that despite the “stunning evidence,” Trump would be acquitted — and he was. He had told his followers “stop the steal” and try they did by storming the US Capitol. But the Senate was not to be denied an exercise in pure partisanship. Acquitted. That’s politics, as I was to learn in 1987-1992 and never really fully appreciated.
When Republican Prez Andrew Johnson, the Democratic successor of the assassinated Republican Abraham Lincoln — at that time, the prez and the veep need not have to be teammates — was impeached by the Democratic House, he was acquitted by the Senate, which fell short of one vote, denied by Sen. Edmund Ross. He and his family were ostracized and suffered from poverty, but it earned him a sterling spot in Jack Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage.
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