Three years ago at this time we were reeling from the effects of a global pandemic that was still taking lives by the tens of thousands and stunned by what had transpired after the election. There was talk of invoking the 25th Amendment against Donald Trump to get him out of office before Inauguration Day, and Congress was considering impeaching him for the second time, mostly to prevent him from ever running again. Even staunch Trump supporters like then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Lindsey Graham stood up to denounce him. There was a strong sense, in other words, that the camel's back had finally snapped.
We should all have known better. Even after the traumatic events of that momentous day, 147 House Republicans came back into the chamber that night, and voted to overturn the election results. As for impeachment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told his aides, “The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a b**ch for us. If this isn't impeachable, I don't know what is." But in the end Senate Republicans couldn't muster the 10 more votes they needed to reach the two-thirds threshold necessary for conviction.
