The perils of outrageous immunity
... He remains in the Oval Office because almost every Republican senator preferred being in power to upholding the democratic principles upon which the US was founded. By Wednesday Mr Trump will have defied justice. He will then be free to continue his campaign of grievance and resentment safe in the knowledge that there is no genuine check on his executive overreach.
The Grand Old Party has offered up its soul in exchange for Mr Trump’s gutting of environmental regulations, appointing conservative judges and cutting taxes for the rich. GOP representatives are repeatedly caught looking the other way over Mr Trump’s corruption, lawbreaking and manifest unfitness for office ...
... The danger was that the evidence would have been so damning as to undercut Republican supporters’ belief that Mr Trump is acting for them rather than himself. In accepting the preposterous argument put forward by Mr Trump’s lawyer that any action a president takes to help his chances of re-election is in the national interest, Republicans have set in train damaging consequences for the US ...
.... He could use the presidency as a bully pulpit to bring out the best in civic life. But he will not. The president wants voters less interested in integrity and empathy ...
... With a majority in the House, Democrats were right to push for impeachment that provided for Mr Trump’s exit. In ducking this the Republican party must ask itself when it would be prepared to turn against their norm-violating president ...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/02/the-guardian-view-on-trumps-impeachment-trial-the-perils-of-outrageous-immunity
