‘Democracy is fragile, must be defended’: Joe Biden on Donald Trump’s acquittal

US President Joe Biden on Saturday said that despite Donald Trump’s acquittal in the US Capitol insurrection trial the charges against him are not in dispute and the attack shows “democracy is fragile,” news agency AFP reported.

“While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute,” Biden said after the Senate voted 57-43 to acquit Trump in his second impeachment trial.

“This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant,” Biden said in a statement after Trump’s trial on charges he incited the mob that overran Congress on January 6.

The five-day impeachment trial saw Democratic prosecutors argue — bolstered by dramatic video of the January 6 riot — that Trump betrayed his oath by whipping up his supporters into storming Congress in a last-ditch attempt to cling to power.

It concluded as expected with a majority of Republicans declaring him not guilty, in a sign of the powerful grip the 74-year-old Trump continues to exert on his party.

But while the 57-43 majority that voted to convict fell short of the two-thirds needed in the Senate, seven Republicans joined with Democrats to seek Trump’s conviction, making it the most bipartisan impeachment trial in US history.

Trump welcomed the verdict — denouncing the proceedings as “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”

Despite the stain of a second impeachment, Trump hinted at a possible political future, saying that “our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun.”

“We have so much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant, and limitless American future,” he said in a statement.