Noah Feldman, Columnist

It Matters Why Republican Senators Vote to Acquit Trump

How they talk about Trump’s alleged behavior will shape what presidents can get away with in the future.

February 4, 2020 at 1:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Open to interpretation.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

“Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.” The public Senate deliberations in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial reminded me of this famous maxim, coined in the 17th century by the French aristocrat and aphorist François de la Rochefoucauld.

From a constitutional standpoint, it would be better if Republican senators who plan to vote against removing Trump say they find the evidence unconvincing — even if they are being hypocritical — than for them to say that Trump’s alleged conduct is fine.