The Republican Party has some decisions to make.
In early January the Capitol was stormed by Trump supporters.
Five people died, including a police officer.
A month on, Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial again.
This time accused of inciting this violence.
And whether guilty or not, this is a man who repeatedly undermined
America's election, who received more than 70 million votes,
and whose son sees it like this.
This isn't
their Republican
Party any more.
This is Donald Trump's Republican
Party.
The world is watching what the Republicans do about Trump.
This impeachment trial is the Democrats seeking to sanction him
despite him having left office.
And on impeachment, the Republicans are nothing, if not consistent.
This was from the first trial in 2019.
I'm not an impartial juror. This is a political process,
there is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment
is a political decision.
And once again, many Republicans appear to have made up their minds.
I'll be brief. I oppose this article of impeachment and I yield back.
For a guilty verdict, 17 of them will need to vote
with the Democrats and that looks unlikely because this is a story
of the backlash that didn't last. In the aftermath of the Capitol,
Republicans took turns to condemn the president.
The president bears responsibility
for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters.
I think the president's rhetoric was irresponsible. I think it was
reckless and I don't think it was remotely helpful.
All I can say
is count me out. Enough is enough.
And remember Mitch McConnell saying he wouldn't be an impartial juror.
Well, in the aftermath of the Capitol, The New York Times reported
that he was open to impeachment. And Liz Cheney, the number three
Republican in the House of Representatives, voted to impeach.
'Republicans begin turning on Trump,' Politico told us.
But most didn't do so for long. By late January, Senior Republican
Kevin McCarthy was visiting Donald Trump to talk about the mid-term elections.
Despite Trump's attacks on American democracy,
he remains part of Republicans' thinking. And not for the first time,
people are asking: 'Where is the limit for Republicans?'
It's a question they're asked because of Trump.
And because of newly elected Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She supported the QAnon conspiracy theory
about Satan-worshipping paedophiles.
She's promoted conspiracy theories about 9/11,
about school shootings being staged,
about body doubles being used on the Supreme Court, about the 2018
California wildfires being ignited by Jewish space lasers.
And that's not even a comprehensive list. This was the message
from the party's leadership after a meeting on her future.
This Republican Party is a very big tent. Everyone's invited in.
To that, Republican Senator Mitt Romney says:
'A big tent is not large enough to both accommodate Conservatives
and kooks.' But arguably that's exactly what's already happened.
Donald Trump has spent years pushing unsubstantiated conspiracy
theories - from Barack Obama not being born in America,
to wind turbines causing cancer, to this election being stolen.
Once you've chosen him as president, where do you go?
Well, Liz Cheney gave her answer when she voted to impeach Donald Trump.
But after that there was a push to oust her from the party,
including from Donald Trump Jr. Well, she survived that.
It was a very resounding acknowledgement that we
need to go forward together and we need to go forward in a way that
helps us beat back the really dangerous and negative Democrat policies.
This, though, isn't really about policy. What we are seeing is a
battle about boundaries, about what is and isn't politically acceptable.
But to what degree is that battle really about Trump?
This Time article argues: 'Trumpism will live on,
not because of his hold on the party, but because of what the party
had become long before he came to town.' But for years,
there has been the idea that Trump isn't really who Republicans are.
Have a listen to Mitch McConnell.
The mob was fed lies,
they were provoked by the president and other powerful people.
But if that's the case, why is the party still dealing with him now?
It may be a straight political calculation that keeping Trump on
side helps, but it could also be about something more fundamental.
This is the Congressman Adam Kinzinger.
The Republican Party has lost its way.
If we are to lead again,
we need to muster the courage to remember who we are.
We need to remember what we believe and why we believe it.
But perhaps it's not that the party has forgotten,
more that some of its leaders haven't reconciled with what it has become.
This is the Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Right now there's an identity crisis in the Republican Party.
There are some in Washington who believe that we've got to purge
Trumpism and then we've got to do whatever is necessary to get back in
the good graces of the corporate PACs that have sworn off some Republicans.
I take a different view.
Trump's impeachment matters. Arguably, what follows matters more.
We're about to find out what the Republican Party stands for.
The nature of American democracy is directly tied to that outcome.