它作为一个宣判无罪这是第二次有史以来第一位总统被弹劾两次，尽管也是唯一一次他自己的政党成员支持定罪两次。
而7名共和党人和50名民主党人一起投票支持前总统唐纳德·特朗普参议院的信念离定罪还差10票。特朗普逃脱了国会可能对他长期以来理解的强大而熟悉的力量施加的最终惩罚，尽管这些力量这次表现出了压力。
尽管有煽动性的谎言选举结果，尽管他的作为和不作为引起了愤怒对国会大厦的恐怖袭击这中断了选举票数的计算，威胁到了他自己的副总统的生命，尽管有时会出现拙劣的弹劾辩护，特朗普的共和党表现出了足够的团结和忠诚，以避免定罪。
特朗普没有承认自己做错了什么。他甚至没有直接或通过他的律师承认，他公平地输掉了选举。
党派之争仍然存在，就像特朗普执政期间经常发生的那样。结果几乎没有疑问，以至于即使在周六上午赢得投票后，民主党人也放弃了传唤证人的努力，宁愿快速结束可能需要几天或几周时间的更长时间的会计工作。
当然，特朗普的言行在没有证人的情况下是彻底的。众议院经理利用视频、推特和详细的时间表，提出了具体和广泛的论点，认为特朗普的行为构成了煽动暴力和玩忽职守——参议员自己也在生命危险之中。
“总统知道这一切正在发生，他没有做任何事情来帮助他的副总统或你们中的任何人，”众议院议员大卫·西奇林在周六的闭幕词中说。"他唯一的目标是为自己赢得选举。"
“特朗普总统必须为我们民主的安全和保障而被定罪，”首席经理、医学博士杰米·拉斯金(Jamie Raskin)说。“我们没有人能逃脱历史和命运的要求。”
但在特朗普和他的团队的讲述中，这位前总统没有煽动他的支持者暴动，威胁国会议员和他自己的副总统。在审判期间，一位曾使“替代事实”出名的总统律师告诉一名共和党参议员，“我对你的事实的前提提出质疑。”
特朗普的律师迈克尔·范德维恩(Michael van der Veen)说:“无论我们看到多少关于暴徒的真正令人震惊的镜头，无论这场审判注入了多少情感，这都不能改变特朗普是无辜的这一事实。”"煽动行为从未发生过。"
防守是特朗普式的——好斗、桀骜不驯、有时漫无边际，充满矛盾和自我批评。这显然让众议院弹劾管理人员感到沮丧，他们细致而情绪化的案件耗费了更多时间，涵盖了更多事实。
“现实点。当被问及特朗普的行为是否导致了骚乱时，拉斯金周五告诉参议员。“拜托，你觉得我们有多容易上当？”
“这不仅仅是一个演讲或一件事。他什么都试过了！”德克萨斯州众议员华金·卡斯特罗说。"对我们来说，不相信就是认为兔子是从帽子里出来的."
特朗普的法律团队选择不受理一个关于弹劾前总统是否符合宪法的狭隘案件。这使得该案成为特朗普主义的全民公决，前总统的暴行有待解释。
他的律师选择为特朗普的谎言辩护格鲁吉亚选举结果并暗示左翼激进分子煽动了1月6日的暴乱。他们拼接了误导性视频，不利地展示杰出的民主党人，甚至一度试图为特朗普臭名昭著的回应辩护参加2017年夏洛茨维尔白人至上主义者集会。
律师们与参议员和众议院经理就诉讼程序的正当性和他们提出的证据进行了争论。他们还模糊地提到，如果数千万特朗普的支持者看到他们青睐的候选人被取消未来的公职追求而感到被剥夺了权利，可能会发生什么。
特朗普的律师大卫·舍恩(David Schoen)警告说，即使举行审判，“也会将这个国家撕裂，也许就像我们在历史上只见过一次一样。”范德文在闭幕词中说，弹劾是长期努力的一部分，目的是“羞辱、贬低、沉默和妖魔化”特朗普的支持者。
范德维恩说:“我敦促参议院宣告宪法无罪并证明其正确。”。
正如预期的那样，特朗普的盟友要求立即平反。另一方面，投票结果让43名共和党参议员拥有特朗普；纽约州参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)表示，这一事实将对他们未来的良心产生影响。
民主党人和历史学家将在总统弹劾审判中注意到有史以来最大的两党投票。尽管如此，投票“有罪”的七名共和党人是即将退休的战场州参议员、坚定的温和派和那些独立于特朗普的人的混合体。
弹劾程序迅速进行的一个可能的赢家是特朗普的继任者。乔·拜登总统试图拉开距离在他与指控和审判之间，他的白宫将更多的注意力放在由新冠肺炎（新型冠状病毒肺炎）种族不平等和更广泛的政治两极分化。
尽管如此，特朗普和他的政治运动似乎受到了打击，但绝不是受到选举后时期的惩罚。这位前总统发表声明称无罪释放是“我国历史上最伟大的政治迫害的另一个阶段”，并补充说，他将很快就“继续我们不可思议的共同旅程”发表更多言论。
不到一年前，第一次弹劾特朗普的众议院首席经理恳求共和党参议员解除他的职务。
“你不会改变他的。你不能约束他。他就是他，”加州民主党众议员亚当·希夫警告说。
特朗普仍然是他自己。但正是他对他接管的共和党的了解，以及他对党派偏见诱惑的认识和利用，让他两次逃脱了国会的问责。
Pull of partisanship helps Trump escape impeachment conviction: ANALYSIS
It goes down as an acquittal -- the second one for the first president ever to be impeached twice, though also the only one to have members of his own party support conviction, twice.
While seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting for former President Donald Trump's conviction, the Senate fell 10 votes short of conviction. Trump was spared the ultimate punishment Congress could wield by powerful and familiar forces he has long understood, though those forces showed strain this time around.
Despite incendiary lies about election results, despite outrage over his actions and inaction during a horrifying attack on the Capitol that interrupted the counting of electoral votes and threatened the life of his own vice president, and despite a sometimes bumbling impeachment defense, Trump's Republican Party showed enough unity and loyalty to stave off conviction.
It happened without Trump admitting he did anything wrong. He did not even concede, directly or through his lawyers, that he lost the election fair and square.
Partisanship still held, just as it did so often during Trump's tumultuous time in office. The outcome was so little in doubt that Democrats backed off efforts to call witnesses even after winning a vote to do so Saturday morning -- preferring a quick wrap to a longer accounting that could consume days or weeks.
The accounting of Trump's words and deeds was thorough without witnesses, of course. House managers used videos, tweets and detailed timelines to make both specific and broad arguments that Trump's actions constituted incitement of violence and a dereliction of duty -- with senators themselves among those whose lives were in danger.
"The president knew this was happening he didn't do anything to help his vice president or any of you," House manager Rep. David Cicciline, D-R.I., said in his closing argument Saturday. "His sole focus was stealing the election for himself."
House lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin answers a question submitted by senators to the impeachment managers during the fourth day of the impeachment trial of the former President Donald Trump on charges of inciting the deadly attack on the Capitol, on Capitol Hill, Feb. 12, 2021.
"President Trump must be convicted for the safety and security of our democracy," said lead manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. "None of us can escape the demands of history and destiny right now."
But in the telling of Trump and his team, the former president did nothing to incite his crowd of supporters to riot and threaten members of Congress and his own vice president. A lawyer for the president who made "alternative facts" famous at one point told a Republican senator during the trial, "I dispute the premise of your facts."
"No matter how much truly horrifying footage that we see of the rioters, and how much emotion has been injected into this trial, that does not change the fact that Mr. Trump is innocent," Trump attorney Michael van der Veen said. "The act of incitement never happened."
The defense was Trumpian -- combative, defiant, rambling at times and filled with contradictions and what-aboutism. It clearly frustrated House impeachment managers, whose meticulous and emotional case consumed far more time and covered far more factual ground.
"Get real. We know that this is what happened," Raskin told senators Friday, when pressed about whether Trump's actions contributed to the riot. "C'mon, how gullible do you think we are?"
"It wasn't just one speech or one thing. He was trying everything!" said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. "For us to believe otherwise is to think a rabbit came out of a hat."
Michael van der Veen, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, answers a question from Sen. Bill Cassidy, during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol Feb. 12, 2021.
Trump's legal team chose not to hew to a narrow case about whether it's constitutional to put a former president on trial for impeachment. That made the case into something of a referendum on Trumpism, with the former president's outrages left open for interpretation.
His attorneys chose to defend Trump's falsehoods about election results in Georgia, and suggested that left-wing activists fomented the rioting of Jan. 6. They spliced misleading video to showcase prominent Democrats unfavorably and at one point even sought to defend Trump's infamous response to the 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally.
The lawyers sparred with senators and House managers over the propriety of the proceedings and the evidence they brought forward. They also made vague references to what might happen if tens of millions of Trump supporters feel disenfranchised by seeing their favored candidate disqualified from future pursuits of office.
Trump attorney David Schoen warned that even holding the trial "will tear this country apart, perhaps like we have only seen once before in our history." Van der Veen said in his close that impeachment was part of a long-running effort to "shame, demean, silence and demonize" Trump supporters.
"I urge the Senate to acquit and vindicate the Constitution," van der Veen said.
Trump allies claimed immediate vindication, as expected. The flip side is that the vote leaves 43 Republican senators owning Trump; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that fact would weigh on their consciences going forward.
In this file photo, former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after participating in a Thanksgiving teleconference with members of the United States military, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26, 2020.
Democrats and historians will note the most bipartisan vote ever at a presidential impeachment trial. Still, the seven Republicans to vote "guilty" were a blend of retiring battleground-state senators, committed moderates and those whose independence from Trump is well-documented.
One possible winner in the swift dispatch of impeachment proceedings is Trump's successor. President Joe Biden has sought to put distance between himself and the charges and trial, with his White House putting far more focus on the enormous challenges posed by COVID-19, racial inequalities and broader political polarization.
Still, Trump and his political movement emerge battered but by no means chastened by the post-election period. The former president issued a statement calling the acquittal "another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country," adding that he will have more to say soon on "continuing our incredible journey together."
Barely a year ago, the lead House manager in the first Trump impeachment implored Republican senators to remove him from office.
"You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is," warned Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Trump indeed remains who he is. But it's what he knew about the Republican Party he took over, and what he recognized and exploited about the lure of partisanship, that allowed him to escape congressional accountability -- twice.
