Senators will be failing their country if Trump doesn’t pay ‘the stiffest possible price’: former Reagan speechwriter

During former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, Democratic impeachment managers — including Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland — have presented a mountain of damning evidence showing that Trump committed "incitement to insurrection" on January 6, when a mob of violent extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol Building. Regardless, most GOP senators are likely to vote "not guilty" — and conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan believes they will be failing their country if they do that.

"The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump has been a rout for the pro-impeachment side," Noonan, who was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, writes in her February 11 column. "They made the case through time-stamped videos and close argumentation, and their timeline linked in an undeniable way the statements of the president on 1/6 and the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol. Democratic floor managers were at their best when they were direct, unadorned, and dealt crisply with information and data, as they did most of the time."

Anyone who is familiar with Noonan's history knows how conservative she is. But the former Reagan speechwriter, now 70, believes that Trump has been terrible for the GOP and terrible for the conservative movement. And Noonan makes it clear that if she were a U.S. senator, she would be voting "guilty" in Trump's second impeachment trial.

"I do not see how Republican senators could hear and fairly judge the accumulated evidence and vote to acquit the former president," Noonan argues. "If we want to keep it from happening again, all involved must pay the stiffest possible price. That would include banning Mr. Trump from future office."

Noonan goes on say that January 6, 2021 will be remembered as an incredibly dark day in U.S. history.

"History will see 1/6 for what it was," Noonan laments. "Those who acquit are voting for a lie. Conviction would be an act of self-respect and of reverence for the place where fortune has placed them."