With the acquittal in his second “impeachment”, Donald Trump has shown that maintains the reins of the Republican Party thanks to his enormous popularity among the voters , who are already making the conservatives who wanted to find him guilty pay a high price.
One of the seven Republicans who supported the proposal of the Democrats to condemn Trump for the assault on the Capitol is Bill Cassidy, senator from Louisiana and who last night was “censored” by the Republican Party of his state , in which It is considered one of the greatest punishments that a local formation can apply.
However, in an interview this Sunday on ABC, Cassidy was confident that time will make his decision understood by the residents of Louisiana and considered that the formation should abandon the cult of Trump’s personality to return to its traditional values .
“The R Party Epublican is much more than a person . The Republican Party are ideas. We were the party that was founded to end slavery, we were the party that preserved the Union, we were the party that passed the first civil rights law, we were the party that ended the Cold War, “he claimed.
With those words, Cassidy portrayed the war that is being waged within the Republican Party to define its identity, now that Trump is no longer president.
The battle for the soul of the Republican Party
Part of the Republicans want Trumpism to remain tied to the party that welcomed in 2016 with the arrival of Trump; but others, like Cassidy, fear that this more radical wing will make them lose votes in the center and they bet on returning to the traditional values of training.
In addition to Cassidy, others two Republicans who voted against Trump received this Sunday criticism from their constituents . These are Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, who next year will retire from politics , so they enjoyed more freedom than his co-religionists to vote in favor of a conviction.
In fact, of the seven Republicans who broke ranks, only one of them, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska , stands for reelection in 2022 ; while three (Cassidy, Susan Collins and Ben Sasse) have just been re-elected, so they will not have to face the polls until 2026.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential candidate in 70, has established himself as an opposition figure to Trump, something that He enjoys some popularity in his state, Utah.
The fear of being the object of the wrath of Trumpism influenced, according to the Democrats, the decision that the majority of Republicans took to acquit to the ex-president.
“ If the vote had been secret, there would have been a conviction “, the senator stated forcefully on Saturday Democrat Richard Blumenthal.
In any case, few Republicans have defended the actions of the former president and most took refuge in technical arguments about the constitutionality of the impeachment to avoid a guilty verdict.
The final score of the vote was 57 votes in favor and 43 against, far from the 67 votes that were needed to convict the former president of the position of “inciting an insurrection” in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, in which five people died, including a policeman.
The ordeal : 2022
The result shows that there will be no imminent divorce between Trumpism and the Conservatives , in large part, because Trump has made it clear that he intends to continue making headlines and rejects the idea of moving into a silent retirement, as former presidents have traditionally done.
In fact, the tycoon is scheduled to meet next week in Florida with Senator Lindsey Graham , one of his most faithful allies, to talk about the future of training.
In an interview with Fox this Sunday, Graham said he had spoken with n the former president after his acquittal and assured that he is “very excited” about the legislative elections of 2022.
Trump has confessed to some of his allies that he intends to use the 2022 election as an opportunity to reward those who have remained loyal to him and punish those who have betrayed.
In addition, the ex-president has opened the door to run himself again in the presidential elections in 2024 .
For his part, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has told his advisers that he plans to fight tooth and nail to defend the traditional Republicans in the elections of 2022 and prevent are challenged in the primaries by far-right candidates akin to Trumpism.
Trump’s other legal woes
However, McConnell knows that a direct confrontation could subtract votes to the Republicans and trusts that the multiple investigations that Trump faces will relegate him to the background in politics .
Specifically, the former president is being investigated in Georgia for his attempts to reverse the electoral result , he has a pending court case in New York for alleged financial crimes and the Prosecutor’s Office of the capital investigates his role in the assault on the Capitol.
In spite of everything, around a 70% of Republican voters continue to back Trump, whose support has declined markedly outside the party since the assault on Capitol Hill to the current figure of 37% among all Americans, according to the average of the surveys produced by the web Five Thirty Eight .
Beatriz Pascual Macías
