In a column for the conservative Bulwark, Cato Institute Vice President Gene Healy accused the Republicans of botching their defense of Donald Trump during his impeachment trial, saying they will someday be haunted by the positions they took.
Noting that the president said of his acquittal that it’s a “gorgeous word,” Healy maintained it may not pan out for Republican lawmakers in the same way.
“Whether you cheer or jeer the Senate’s refusal to convict, the more important question is, what precedent did it set? Unlike Supreme Court majority opinions, impeachment verdicts don’t explain themselves. ‘Not guilty’ can mean anything from total vindication to ‘contemptible behavior that doesn’t quite justify removal.’ A great deal turns on how senators from the president’s party explain their votes,” he wrote. “On that score, Senate Republicans sent a distressingly mixed message in the impeachment trial’s immediate aftermath. In their floor speeches explaining their votes, too few managed to clearly condemn Trump’s misuse of presidential power for personal benefit. And too many embraced novel constitutional theories, concocted by Trump’s defense team, that would license more dramatic presidential abuses in the future.” Continue reading.