USA Today Gnashes Teeth That the ‘U.S. Is Not Free of Trumpism’

Feb. 14 , 2021 (EIRNS)—The Editorial Board of USA Today bemoaned the fact that Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate this week, warning darkly that it showed that “an authoritarian sickness remains at the center of the nation’s politics.... Trump is out of office, but as the [Senate] vote shows, the United States is not free of Trumpism.”

The editorial railed against those Senators and Congressmen who dared to suggest that charges of voter fraud should be investigated, arguing that this proved that they “are guilty of violating their constitutional oaths and attempting to take the nation down a dictatorial path with an unelected President.” Senators Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham are among those singled out for holding “the delusional belief among the insurrectionists that Trump was the legitimate winner.” They are part of “the Senate’s authoritarian caucus,” along with “a similar group of more than 100 members in the House of Representatives. Both maintain significant power in a closely divided Congress as President Biden works to restore constitutional guardrails dismantled during the Trump administration.”

Trump meanwhile welcomed the Senate acquittal in a statement issued on Feb. 13, in which he decried “the greatest witch hunt” in American history, and promised that “our historic, patriotic, and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun.... I have much to share with you” in “the months ahead.”