The GOP Didn’t Just Acquit Trump, It Endorsed Him
By failing to hold him accountable for the Capitol insurrection, Republicans have co-signed Trump’s attack on democracy
Former President Donald Trump’s lies led to a bloody riot, desecration of the Capitol building, mass violence, and the tragic deaths of seven people. Now that he has again been impeached by the House but avoided conviction in the Senate, one thing is clear: His party has learned nothing.
Or perhaps more troubling, they’ve learned to imitate him.
The shameful January 6 display at the Capitol began long before that day. It began as soon as Trump started telling what critics have called “the big lie”— the claim that the election was stolen by Democrats. Trump didn’t mean the election rules were unfair because the Electoral College system undermines the ideal of one person, one vote. He didn’t mean that voter identification laws functionally disenfranchised a great many Americans. He didn’t even mean that hostile foreign actors may have used social media to exacerbate political polarization and spread disinformation.
No, he literally meant that votes were stolen or faked. He meant he actually won, but there was a conspiracy to take that victory away from him. Trump claimed that America’s…
