United States: the Republican Party forced to come to terms with Donald Trump?
Donald Trump was once again acquitted on Saturday February 13.
US Senate TV via REUTERS - US Senate TV
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
Donald Trump was acquitted on Saturday, February 13, despite the vote of seven Republicans in favor of his "impeachment".
If the Republican camp is not completely torn, what is the future of the former president within the party?
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With our correspondent in the United States,
Thomas Harms
With 57 votes for and 43 against, when a two-thirds majority was needed, Democratic prosecutors failed to convince enough Republican senators to secure the conviction of the former president who was therefore acquitted for the second time .
But seven elected members of the Republican Party voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump.
On the evening of
Donald Trump's acquittal
, the leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell no longer concealed that he wanted to move his party away from the stranglehold of the former president: "
There is no doubt that President Trump is concretely and morally responsible for provoking the events of January 6.
We have criminal justice in this country, President Trump is still responsible under the law for everything he did while in office, like an ordinary citizen.
He's not out of the woods.
Not yet.
"
Donald Trump, retired in Florida, would have confirmed to relatives of his fears of being sued for inciting insurgency.
"The most powerful force in the Republican Party is President Trump"
However, one of his relatives, Senator Lindsey Graham, had him on the phone.
And on Sunday, he was confident in his future with the Republicans.
“
He's ready to go ahead and rebuild the Republican Party.
He is looking forward to being in 2022 for the midterm elections.
He's ready to go and I'm ready to work with him, he
explains.
The most powerful force in the Republican Party is President Trump.
"
The Republican Party will therefore have to deal with a Donald Trump, who has also somewhat abandoned his idea of creating a new party.
No witnesses will have finally been heard during this second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
On Saturday, however, the head of the Republican prosecutors, Jamie Raskin, announced at the opening of this fifth day of the trial that he would summon Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican elected representative of the House of Representatives who had reported an exchange between the leader of the Republicans in the House Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump in the deadly assault on January 6.
But that would have risked delaying the verdict and hampering the work of the new American administration, explains Paul Schor, lecturer in American history and civilization at Paris-Diderot University.
“
There have been negotiations with Republicans who have said that if Democratic prosecutors bring in witnesses, and in particular this Republican representative who had quite incriminating testimony for Trump, they on the one hand would request a hearing of a large number of witnesses, including Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and others.
But above all, they were going to drag out both the trial, but also the confirmation procedures of Joe Biden's ministers, which are not yet all confirmed, that is to say, use the means of procedure so that everything it drags on, he
reports.
And in fact, it is clearly not the interest of Joe Biden who wants us to put this story behind and that we focus instead on his policy both economic and health which is for the moment quite popular for Americans.
"
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