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Wall Street Journal: Trump might be acquitted, but won’t live down ‘disgraceful conduct’

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote that while the Senate may acquit former President Trump over the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, “he won’t live down his disgraceful conduct.”

In an editorial that appeared in print on Thursday, the board weighed in on the House impeachment managers’ emotional presentation in which they argued that Trump is directly responsible for the Jan. 6 attack by his supporters.

The board wrote that the managers laid out a “visceral case” the riot was a disgrace “for which President Trump bears direct responsibility.” It also called out the former president for telling “an apocalyptic fable in which American democracy might end on Jan. 6,” noting that some of his supporters “acted like it.”

“Once the riot began, Mr. Trump took hours to say anything, a delay his defenders have not satisfactorily explained,” the board added.

The board also wrote that there is no defense for Trump’s conduct prior to the riot and during it, pointing out that he could have conceded to President Biden after the Electoral College vote on Dec. 14.

“Now his legacy will be forever stained by this violence, and by his betrayal of his supporters in refusing to tell them the truth,” the board wrote. “Whatever the result of the impeachment trial, Republicans should remember the betrayal if Mr. Trump decides to run again in 2024.”

Democratic House impeachment managers on Wednesday sought to connect Trump to the riots through his repeated unproven claims of voter fraud that occurred even before the Nov. 3 election, his conduct after the election was called for Biden and his inaction to stop the Jan. 6 riot as it took place. Included in their presentation was new security footage from inside the Capitol that showed just how close lawmakers came to rioters.

Democrats would need 17 senators to join them in convicting Trump for inciting the riot, which seems unlikely.

Tags Donald Trump Donald Trump Impeachment Impeachment Joe Biden The Wall Street Journal

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