The United States Senate officially voted to acquit President Donald Trump of the articles of impeachment against him Wednesday, bringing the months-long impeachment saga to an unsurprising end. The president was acquitted in a 52-48 vote that, with the exception of Senator Mitt Romney, fell largely along party lines. And after Republican senators lined up to exonerate the president—even after, in several cases, admitting that his behavior regarding Ukraine was wrong—Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown offered a simple explanation for his colleagues’ behavior: fear.
In an op-ed for the New York Times published just after the acquittal vote, Brown said that GOP senators aren’t excusing the president’s behavior in private, acknowledging behind closed doors that Trump’s quid pro quo with Ukraine was “reckless and unfit.” “In private, many of my colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit. They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong,” Brown writes. “They know this president has done things Richard Nixon never did. And they know that more damning evidence is likely to come out.” Several Republican senators had somewhat suggested as much in public statements that acknowledged the president’s wrongdoing while still arguing for his acquittal, from Sen. Lamar Alexander saying that Senate trial witnesses were not required to prove something that has “already been proven,” to Sen. Susan Collins claiming that Trump “has learned from this case” and “will be much more cautious in the future.” (When asked about that statement on Wednesday on Fox News, after the president made it clear he did not believe there’s anything for him to learn from, Collins admitted she “may not be correct on that,” and said her view was “more aspirational on my part.”)
These arguments, Brown writes, have been “painful to behold,” as Republican senators perform “mental gymnastics” to explain their votes in favor of a president whose behavior they do not support. But while Republicans may not approve of Trump’s behavior, Brown explains that their fear of the president and his stranglehold over the Republican base—and their re-election campaigns—far outweigh their desire for justice:
When asked what they’ll do if the president’s post-acquittal behavior only gets worse, Brown writes, Republicans’ “responses have been shrugs and sheepish looks.” “We all want to think that we always stand up for right and fight against wrong. But history does not look kindly on politicians who cannot fathom a fate worse than losing an upcoming election,” the Ohio senator writes. “They might claim fealty to their cause—those tax cuts—but often it’s a simple attachment to power that keeps them captured.”
Indeed, Republicans were eager to focus on how Trump’s acquittal would benefit them politically in the immediate aftermath of the Senate vote, rather than the substance of the charges they voted against. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to answer questions over whether he approved of Trump’s Ukraine behavior when speaking to reporters after the vote, saying that he only wanted to talk about the “political impact of this.” “I can tell you this, right now, this is a political loser for [Democrats],” McConnell said. “They initiated it, they thought this was a great idea and at least for the short term, it has been a colossal political mistake.” Trump, too, emphasized the argument his acquittal made for his electability in his immediate response to the Senate vote, tweeting a video (again) that suggests him running for re-election through 2048. (The president later followed up with a video claiming Romney is a “Democrat Secret Asset.”)