Trump Acquitted, Why am I not surprised?

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The Senate voted to acquit Trump yesterday, ten votes short of conviction. A majority of senators did vote to convict.
The roll call of who voted how is even more interesting. Every Independent voted "guilty". Every Democrat voted "Guilty". All but seven Republicans voted "not guilty".

I'm disappointed, but not surprised.

Should I be surprised?

For the record there are 2 Independent senators, 48 Democrats, and 50 Republicans. The vote was 57-43 guilty. They need a 2/3 majority to convict.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/...ote_cfm.cfm?congress=117&session=1&vote=00059

 

I'm hoping it's a stepping stone Americans had to get past before moving on to charge him and hopefully convict him of other crimes. I'm assuming he can't run for President again if he's in jail.

 

Being convicted of a felony strips you of your right to vote, but surprisingly not your right to run for office once you have served your time. Heck, George Bush was convicted of DUI before I was born. I do know that some senators and representatives have been on parole while running for office and getting elected. Although to be fair the most common charge senators have been convicted of is DWI (drunk driving) with DUI (driving while on drugs) being the second most common. I think solicitation is the third most common charge. Note that I am basing that information on some vague recollections when somebody said that there were a lot of actual criminals in Congress back over 20 years ago and I looked it up on dial-up and found it was true.

Also I don't think he can run while in jail, but once he gets out there's nothing stopping him from trying. Hopefully he'd do worse than Ross Perot, but he can still try.
Heck, some politicians have been open about their ex-con status.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/23/formerly-incarcerated-political-candidates

 

True, however if he stays in Florida he may not be able to vote for himself. State Laws in various states can prevent felons from voting. Florida in particular is aggressive in this way arguably because State (GOP) government there wanted to prevent many lower class people from voting and they were seen as the most likely to have criminal records or outstanding fines (which I think it also uses to exclude people).

That said if Trump is in jail it will probably slow his campaign down a bit because it'll be harder for him to schedule rallies.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...dent-may-be-ineligible-after-u-s-capitol-riot

I came across this article from January that suggests that there is a constitutional provision is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that bars a person from holding any office “under the United States” if the person has sworn an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the government or “given aid to the enemies” of the U.S. I'm assuming that if push comes to shove this will play into the proceedings.

It doesn't make a sense that a country that doesn't allow inmates to vote would allow a felon to run for president.

 

First, George Bush had ad DUI conviction and still got elected.
https://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/02/bush.dui/

Second, for Trump to be ineligible, he'd have to be convicted of those acts of "insurrection or rebellion against the government" or "giving aid to the enemies of the U.S.".
Our laws have a concept of "innocent until proven guilty".
As long as he isn't charged with those acts, he's eligible to run in 2024.

Now if he's charged with and convicted with election tampering like Georgia seems to want to do, I'm not sure if that will disqualify him unless he's in jail in 2024.

That said, I'm surprised they haven't tried to indite him for the incident in the capital. Article I, section III of The Constitution specifically says that the impeachment proceedings are an exception to double jeopardy and that the person impeached is still eligible to be tried in criminal court.
Although I'm no lawyer, I wonder if double-jeopardy kicks in if he's acquitted.