Trump's acquittal in impeachment trial exposes deepening rift within GOP

Former US President Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial has exposed a deepening rift within the GOP. The Republicans, who voted to convict Trump, have been facing a backlash. It has sparked a debate on whether to continue to embrace the Republican leader or move past his brand of politics. In the Senate Chamber on Saturday, 57 senators voted to convict Trump but a two-thirds majority in the 100-member body was required to formally punish and bar him from running for office again. At least seven Republican defections, among them Trump’s public critic Mitt Romney of Utah made it the most bipartisan impeachment verdict of four in American history. 

In the aftermath of Trump’s trial, it will be difficult for the GOP to break from the former President as the party charts its path forward. Republicans are seeking to win back the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections but they are also concerned that it could distract from the party’s ability to focus on defeating Democrats and regaining power in Washington. 

According to CNN, Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is vowing to focus on electability over loyalty to Trump as the party faces several challenges to control the Senate in the states where the margins between Trump and President Joe Biden had been closest. However, Republican senators who voted to convict Trump are facing censures from local and state parties that so far have not tolerated any criticism of the former President. Those reprisals are an illustration of how the party is currently fashioned around a single leader. It also illustrates the difficulty Republican candidates will face in retaining the support of a Trump-adoring GOP base while appealing to a broader electorate with whom Trump is unpopular. 

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Republicans rebuke anti-Trump Senators 

Now, County and state Republican parties are officially rebuking some of the GOP senators who voted to convict Trump. According to CNN, Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy was censured by his state party hours after his vote. Nebraska’s Ben Sasse will also face a vote in the coming weeks. The North Carolina Republican Party, on the other hand, voted to censure retiring Senator Richard Burr. 

In key swing states, Republicans have largely argued that a wholesale rejection of Trump and everything he stood for would alienate the party’s base and that a version of his message can succeed in the 2022 midterms. In Georgia, Trump could be poised to play an outsized role in the state in 2022, with the governor’s office, a Senate seat, and other key races on the ballot. However, several leaders believe that the GOP will lose national and statewide races in an otherwise winnable background if it remains tethered to an unpopular former President. It is too soon to tell whether voters will reward or penalize the few figures within the GOP who have been unapologetically critical of Trump. 

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