Alfredo Maia
Today at 22:53–
The Senate of the United States ended this Wednesday, with the expected absolution, the process of destitution of Donald Trump, nine months from the presidential elections in November and at a time of such a rare crisis that Congress experienced an unprecedented episode: as Republican congressmen and guests cheered him on his feet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of the state of the nation speech on Tuesday.
“It was the most courteous gesture in the face of alternatives,” explained the Democratic leader, leaving the traditional act that Trump made a point of maintaining on the eve of the outcome of the political trial, in which he was accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, for pressured the President of Ukraine to have his opponent Joe Biden’s family investigated. The Republican majority, which has 53 senators (against 47 Democrats), voted against, but one of them, Mitt Rommey, spoke out in condemnation: “The president is guilty of a terrible abuse of public confidence”.
Pelosi’s gesture was also a response to Trump’s rudeness. Upon arriving at the pulpit, and after handing him a copy of the speech, he ostensibly turned his back on the president of the “Casa” when she held out her hand to greet him. When, after an hour and 18 minutes, the intervention ended and he was applauded standing up, the “speaker” stood up and was tearing up a set of pages of the text.
Some Democrats were quick to leave; others had left the room during the intervention, protesting against Trump’s “lies”. During the speech, there was boos and laughter. But there was also at least a common standing ovation, even from Pelosi, when Trump greeted a guest at the gallery – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who he presented as “Venezuela’s legitimate president”.
Guaidó’s presence served to illustrate Trump’s reiterated promise that President Nicolás Maduro’s mandate “will be crushed and destroyed” and support for Cuban and Venezuelan opponents maintained “to restore democracy”. In passing, he boasted of the “severe” sanctions imposed on communist and socialist dictatorships “and of” revoking the failed policies of the previous administration (Barack Obama) with Cuba “.
an entertainer in action
Former television entertainer, the president used show techniques to bring the water of his messages to the campaign mill. In the gallery, there was a border patrol agent and the sister of a man murdered by an illegal immigrant. Trump carried a heavy load, announcing that within a year there will be another 805 kilometers of wall made on the border with Mexico and that illegal immigrants will lose support in health and be expelled.
A woman also pointed out at the gallery: she had “a very special surprise”. Then, a military man, who had been on a mission for months, started down the stairs. It was the motto to renew the promise to “bring the soldiers back home” in Afghanistan: “It is not our job to be a security agency in other countries”. However…
“I ask Congress to end the dangerous defense hijacking and fully fund our great army,” to face “dishonest regimes, terrorist groups and rivals like China and Russia,” he said. Sanctions against the Iranian economy will remain in place “until Tehran abandons its nuclear weapons policy and spreads death and terror”.
Still externally, he praised his strategy to force Mexico and Canada to enter into new trade agreements and the extraordinary customs duties imposed on China. Internally, he kept his euphoric tone. “The economy is better than ever” and “the years of decay are over”.
