How to Hold Senate Republicans Accountable

How to Hold Senate Republicans Accountable

How to Hold Senate Republicans Accountable

Defeat them at the polls.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

Donald Trump’s relentless campaign to overturn the election he lost culminated in the mob that invaded the Capitol. His abuse of power and dereliction of duty clearly merited impeachment and conviction. His guilt is not in question; the masterful presentation of the case in the Senate trial by House impeachment managers left no doubt.

After the trial, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed this reality: “Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty.… There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.… The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”

McConnell still voted to acquit, on the laughable grounds that Trump was no longer president—even though it was McConnell himself who delayed the trial until after Trump was out of office. But the facts were never in dispute—and were not even particularly disputed by the president’s lawyers. As Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the third-ranking House Republican, summarized, “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

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The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week.

Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts. And Signalgate promises to be the first of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence at the core of the American empire.

At a time when elite universities, powerful law firms, and influential media outlets are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation, The Nation is more determined than ever before to hold the powerful to account.

In just the last month, we’ve published reporting on how Trump outsources his mass deportation agenda to other countries, exposed the administration’s appeal to obscure laws to carry out its repressive agenda, and amplified the voices of brave student activists targeted by universities.

We also continue to tell the stories of those who fight back against Trump and Musk, whether on the streets in growing protest movements, in town halls across the country, or in critical state elections—like Wisconsin’s recent state Supreme Court race—that provide a model for resisting Trumpism and prove that Musk can’t buy our democracy.

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In solidarity,

The Editors

The Nation

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