McConnell Claims He Was Defending the Constitution By Voting to Acquit Trump

“The Constitution presupposes that anyone convicted by the Senate must have an office from which to be removed,” McConnell later explains, saying that his own constitutional philosophy is aligned with constitutional scholar Justice Joseph Story, who posited that removing a president is “mandatory” upon conviction. “This doesn’t mean leaving office provides immunity from accountability. Former officials are ‘still liable to be tried and punished in the ordinary tribunals of justice.’ Criminal law and civil litigation ensure there is no so-called January exemption.”

McConnell appears to have set his sights on guiding the GOP in a post-Trump world and retaking the Senate in 2022.

“My goal is, in every way possible, to have nominees representing the Republican Party who can win in November,” McConnell told Politico this week. “Some of them may be people the former president likes. Some of them may not be. The only thing I care about is electability.”

“Here’s what the scheduling critics are really saying: Senate Republicans should have followed a rushed House process with a light-speed Senate sham. They think we should have shredded due process and ignited a constitutional crisis in a footrace to outrun our loss of jurisdiction,” McConnell observed in his op-ed, arguing that bringing the Senate back into session to consider the article of impeachment the House approved on January 13 would not necessarily have sped up the process.

“The nation needs real constitutional champions, not fair-weather institutionalists,” he concluded. “The Senate’s duty last week was clear. It wasn’t to guarantee a specific punishment at any cost. Our job was to defend the Constitution and respect its limits. That is what our acquittal delivered.”

In a piece for The Lexington Herald-Leader published yesterday, op-ed columnist Linda Blackford criticized McConnell for voting to acquit Trump, writing that his speeches “won’t save his beloved legacy.”

“McConnell gave a pass to white supremacy, a pass on attacking the U.S. Capitol. He gave so many passes to Trump that we are left with a country that is sick in mind and body,” she wrote. “His beloved Republican party has turned into a death cult in thrall to a pathetic and pathological egotist. There will be some poetic justice in watching him try to unravel it over the next five years.”