after the start of the impeachment, Donald Trump isolated and silent

With the rewrite of his place in history, President Donald Trump received the news of a second impeachment proceeding against him virtually alone and in silence.

For more than four years, Trump dominated national discourse like no other president before him. Yet when his legacy was set in stone on Wednesday, he remained surprisingly on the fringes.

Trump’s situation is second to none as he is the only president to be twice charged with a felony or serious misconduct, a new end to a presidential term defined by increase division in the country, his failures during the worst pandemic in a century, and his refusal to accept defeat at the polls.

Trump stayed out of public view in a White House practically empty while the impeachment process unfolded in a heavily guarded Capitol. There, the damage from riots last week provided a visible reminder of the insurgency the president is accused of inciting.

Abandoned by some members of his own party, Trump could not help but watch TV how the story unfolded. The suspension of his Twitter account deprived Trump of its most powerful medium to keep Republicans aligned, making Trump look like he’s lost his fangs and, for the first time, control your party adoptive.

He was finally heard hours after the vote, in a video in which he condemned the insurgency on Capitol Hill and warned his supporters not to participate in further acts of violence. It was a message that was missing a week ago, when protesters marching on behalf of Trump arrived at Congress headquarters in an attempt to avoid certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

“I want to be very clear. I strongly condemn the violence that we saw last week,” Trump said. He added that none of his “true” supporters “could ever tolerate the use of political violence.”

But this message, partially motivated to avoid legal action For instigating unrest, he was at odds with what Trump had said throughout his tenure, including last week when he urged his supporters to “fight” for him. He told the protesters he loved them and that they were special.

Trump on Wednesday did not say a word about the impeachment in the video, although he complained about the vetoes against him on social media.

With barely a week in office, there have been no belligerent messages from the White House opposing the proceedings taking place across Pennsylvania Avenue, nor an organized legal response.

Some Republican lawmakers defended the president during the impeachment debate in the House of Representatives, but at the end of the session, 10 republicans joined Democrats vote in favor of impeachment.

It was in stark contrast to the first impeachment proceedings against Trump. The December 2019 vote, in which Trump only became the third president in history to be impeached, remained in partisan blocs. The charges on this occasion were that he had used the authority of his position to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival and current President-elect, Joe Biden.

By Jonathan Lemire, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller

Associated press

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