President Donald Trump holds up a copy of USA TODAY with the headline that reads “ACQUITTED” at the 68th annual National Prayer Breakfast, at the Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)
The impeachment of President Donald Trumpis over. And he was acquitted.
It was the culmination of a wild 48 hours in politics (not to mention Iowa … more on that below). The night before the impeachment vote, Trump addressed the entire Congress for his State of the Union address. It started with him snubbing a handshake with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and ended with her ripping up his speech right behind him.
What started in September of 2019 slammed shut Wednesday, with the Senate voting to acquit Trump of charges levied by the House of Representatives. No Democrats voted to acquit, and one Republican voted to convict on one of the two charges. That Republican? Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.
Romney gave an emotional speech before the final roll call vote, choking up as he read, “I swore an oath, before God, to exercise “impartial justice.” I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”
Up next, New Hampshire: Everything you need to know for New Hampshire debate
And then Trump let him have it. He fired back in a midnight tweet about Romney’s loss in 2012, saying that if the candidate had “devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election.”
Speaking of elections.
University of Iowa students hold up numbered cards while they caucus on Feb. 3, 2020, in Iowa City. (Photo: Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen/USA TODAY Network)
Iowa. Where do we even start.
The Iowa caucuses were Monday night, and we still don’t have a declared winner.
It is … really, really not good. Caucusgoers were mad, the campaigns were mad. DNC chair Tom Perez got mad and asked for a recanvass (which is a lot like a recount, but different).
Part of the frustration comes from Iowa’s caucus rules, which up until this year have never included releasing popular vote totals. Instead, the party would release something called state delegate equivalents (SDE), which represent how many delegates to the state convention each candidate earned on caucus night.
Pete Buttigieg led in SDEs for most of the week after results started being published Tuesday, and declared Monday the campaign was “victorious” heading into New Hampshire.
Iowa: Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders in a near tie, with 100% of results published
But Sen. Bernie Sanders is winning in the popular vote — both in the first alignment of the night and the final alignment. Sanders declared victory during a press conference in New Hampshire Thursday, saying “when 6,000 more people come out for you in an election then your nearest opponent, then we here in northern New England call that a victory.”
With 100% of precincts reporting Thursday, the race was very very tight as Buttigieg held 26.198% of SDEs compared to Sanders’ 26.128%.
It’s a very real possibility both Sanders and Buttigieg come out of Iowa with the same number of national delegates, which are what decide the evenual party nomination.
So where does that leave us? Well, mostly just ready to stop doing math and get to New Hampshire. There’s a debate in the Granite State tonight and on Tuesday, voters head to the polls for a traditional primary.
As always, thanks for reading. Want to make sure your voice is heard this election? Check your voter registration here, or get registered if you aren’t already.— Annah Aschbrenner
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