Generally in a trial two things need to be determined. The first is whether what happened constituted a crime. The second is whether the accused did in fact commit the act.
Impeachment is really no different with a major difference. An Impeachable offense does not have to be a crime, only something deemed impeachable. The duty to determine that is invested in the House of Representatives and they have returned two impeachable acts.
Under our constitution, that determination is final and we now proceed to the Senate.
The Senate conducts the equivalent of a trial to determine a number of things. Did the President actually commit the acts he is accused of? Do those acts merit the only punishment available under the constitution, removal?
We see both of these items under assault or at least being challenged on social media by the President. Despite that, it is pretty clear he did in fact perform the acts he is accused of.
What is therefore the remaining issue, and the one that the last Impeachment trial turned on, is do the offenses merit removal? It seems most likely that the Senate will decide they don't and whatever your political leanings, the actions involved, at least so far, did not result in any specific harm to the country or its citizens, outside of the real but somewhat esoteric issue of violating the Constitution.
So assuming the Senate goes the way expected, the next step is the election to follow. This is the issue related to the details of the Senate trial currently being fought over. The more witnesses and the longer it goes, the more likely the public will absorb the misdeeds that occurred.
A quick acquittal will keep the public uninformed.
Seems to be the result desired by Republicans.
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