The Impeachment of Trump Tears the Republican Party

According to an article entitled “”Impeachment” Shows that Capitol Rebellion Reveals Cracks in the Republican Party” published by the Spanish newspaper El País on January 13, 10 Republican congressmen voted to impeach Trump, and some Republican senators, including the powerful Mitch McConnell, also expressed support for the impeachment or viewed it as an opportunity to remove Trump from the party.

The start of the impeachment process showed that the riots on Capitol Hill have cracked the rock of unconditional loyalty to Trump within the Republican Party. When Trump was impeached a year ago, not a single Republican congressman voted for impeachment. But this time, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives gave up formally to pressure members of his party to vote against impeachment. Then ten Republicans voted for the impeachment case. This unusual number made it one of the most bipartisan impeachment cases in history.

Some Republican senators also expressed support for the impeachment. Among them, the standing of McConnell, the most influential Republican senator in Congress, was particularly significant. According to sources, McConnell, who represents the alliance between the Republican Party and Trump, believed that Trump should have been impeached for his crimes. The impeachment provided them with an opportunity to purge Trump from the Republican Party and save the Party from trouble.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy also seemed to have ended his unconditional loyalty to the president. In a debate in the House of Representatives on the 13th, he stated that Trump was “responsible” for the riots on Capitol Hill.

Republican lawmakers are facing the choice between long-term or short-term pain. The immediate harm of leaving Trump is obvious. The presidential election in November last year and the previous primaries clearly showed that the foundation of the Republican Party is closely related to Trump. Voting for Trump’s removal may challenge many Republican senators facing the 2022 congressional elections. In this future election, the Republican Party must retain 20 of the 34 re-election seats. Trump’s team has warned that 80% of Trump voters and 76% of Republicans in swing states are unlikely to elect senators or representatives who support impeachment.

On the contrary, if you think about it in the long term, many people support a break with Trump. In these four years, the Republican Party has become a fan of Trump. One of the evidence is that at the Republican National Convention last summer, party members even gave up discussing and approving the election plan, and declared, “Let us continue to enthusiastically support Trump’s agenda.” Now, the Republican Party has lost the White House and both houses of Congress, and has witnessed the disturbing riots that erupted because of Trump. Suspicion that has never been seen in four years has been abounding. Out of conviction, but also out of personal ambition, those Republican members who aspire to run for president no longer want Trump and his aides to monopolize the party.