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**David Frum**: _Impeachment Did Not Prevail, But Trump Still Lost_: ‘Senators showed courage worth enduring historical honor. Seven were Republicans: Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey. The other was Joe Manchin, 1/
a Democrat from a state where nearly 69 percent of the voters chose Donald Trump for president.... Thanks to their integrity, a clear majority of the Senate voted to condemn the former president as an insurrectionist.... The 57–43 margin wasn’t enough to convict under the 2/
Constitution. It wasn’t enough to formally disqualify Trump from ever again seeking office in the United States. But practically? It will do as a solemn and eternal public repudiation of Trump’s betrayal of his oath of office.... You say that you are disappointed... justice 3/
was not done? It wasn’t. But now see the world... through the eyes of those who defend Trump or even want him to run again. Their hope was to dismiss this impeachment as partisan.... That hope was banished today.... The senators who voted to acquit are the ones likely to 4/
justify their decision on some strained, narrow, technical ground. The number who truly believed Trump innocent of the charges brought against him is surely smaller than the 43 who voted to acquit. Statements by senators such as Mitch McConnell and Rob Portman show that their 5/
votes did not match their thoughts.... The background fact of this second Trump impeachment trial was how broadly popular it was.... Fewer than a quarter believed that Trump did “nothing wrong” on January 6. Those are not the numbers on which to base a Grover Cleveland–style 6/
comeback tour—especially not when the majority of Americans also believe that Donald Trump did a bad job handling the COVID-19 pandemic and that President Joe Biden is doing a good job.... The 57–43 margin in the Senate flashes a green light to federal and state prosecutors 7/
that, if they find evidence of crimes, proceeding with legal action against Trump would be politically safe. Trump also faces the prospect of civil actions by the families of those who lost their lives in the insurrection that he incited. If and when they sue, their attorneys 8/
will surely cite what Senator Mitch McConnell said immediately after the trial vote. The Senate minority leader condemned Trump’s actions as a “disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty” and said he held Trump “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events 9/
of the day.” McConnell continued: "The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instruction of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, 10/
and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth. The issue is not only the president’s intemperate language on January 6.… It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe, the increasingly 11/
wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen by some secret coup by our now-president..." His own damning assessment did not suffice to persuade McConnell to convict Trump of impeachable offenses. That abdication will weigh on McConnell’s 12/
conscience and historical reputation…' 13/END
