The impeachment trial of Donald Trump, for inciting his supporters’ incursion on the Capitol building in Washington DC got under way today.

This will be the second impeachment trial of the former United States (US) president and, if the Democrats get their way, the first time in history that someone who held the highest office in the US will have been convicted by the Senate.

But should Donald Trump have been impeached, and should he be convicted? After all, he is now a private citizen, no longer in public office.

The move to convict him for incitement centres around what he said on January 6, hours before that infamous storming of the Capitol.

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong,” said the President, addressing his loyal supporters.

Does this statement constitute a high crime and misdemeanor, given the context?

There are those who hold the view that Trump is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Senator Rand Paul believes to impeach Trump is technically unconstitutional.

Was the then President’s words an exhortation to go storm the Capitol? Is he to be made accountable for what took place because he chose not to condemn the participants?

The prescience of Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, is clear to see when he says, “Our system only works well if we understand the speaker is not responsible for the action of the listener, no matter if they are Republican, Democrat or other.”

Trump’s lawyer, David Schoen, makes a point when he argues that to impeach the former President for what took place that fateful day  “is putting at risk any passionate political speaker which is against everything we believe in in this country”.

Political expediency is clear here. With 75 million votes in the last presidential election, Donald Trump is a political force and has a strong hand in determing the Republican Party’s fortunes. By rendering him ineligible to contest the 2024 election, Democrats remove a formidable foe.

The Constitution explicitly allows the Senate’s disqualification of a convicted public official from holding office. The Democrats must now make this stick, but face a daunting task in so doing. This would mean the 100-member Senate must see 17 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats to obtain the needed majority of two-thirds support. Highly unlikely.

With Trump now playing golf daily at Mar-a-Largo, no longer weighed by the responsibilities of the presidency, why bother? Wouldn’t Biden and the Democrats be better served fighting the coronavirus, getting vaccines to Americans and seeing to it that the economy gets back on track? Isn’t this impeachment a dissipation of their energies?

Many Democrats argue no, that Trump must be held accountable for what happened that day.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who has voted to proceed with the second impeachment trial, cryptically said: “If we’re going to have unity in our country, I think it is important to recognise the need for accountability, for truth and justice.”

Joe Neguse, the Democrat representative of Colorado, was more direct.

“The text of the Constitution makes clear there is no January exception to the impeachment power. Presidents can’t commit grave offences in their final days and escape any congressional response. That’s not how our constitution works.”

Many prominent Democrats and Trump detractors proclaim that Donald Trump is singularly responsible for inciting the insurrection and should not be allowed to return to political office.

Democratic Representative David Cicilline declared: “The President of the United States sided with the insurrectionists.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has branded Trump “a deranged, unhinged, dangerous person”. Now defeated, Trump is being painted as an irrational demagogue who QAnon supporters rally around and whose brand of politics will only lead to more divisiveness in the country, therefore making him an existential threat.

It’s not simply about impeachment, it goes deeper than that – it’s all about excising him from the body politic, cutting him out like a cancer before it gets uncontrollable.

Brad Meyers, formerly of the Chicago Tribune said: “There is no question that Donald Trump inflamed insurrection and then walked away thinking there would be no consequences. To let him off would allow other presidents to use their power without fear of accountability.”

Presidents should always be mindful of how they conduct themselves and that mob did run rampant in the Capitol building in Trump’s name and he didn’t command them to stand down.

It was a clear and present danger aimed at democracy itself and someone has to answer for it. To get away with it will serve as an inducement to try again. Only, this time, tear the building down and everyone in it – unthinkable!

“President Trump’s effort to extend his grip on power by fomenting violence against Congress was a profound violation of the oath he swore. If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a joint session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offence, it is hard to imagine what would be,” said the House Impeachment Team in making its case.

What does Trump make of it all?….

Now watch this drive!