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President Donald Trump's acquittal Wednesday in an historic Senate vote was long expected, with his Republican allies in control of the chamber. But the aftermath of the vote -- the third such acquittal in U.S. history -- has included a White House purge, congressional tensions and fiery defenses of Trump by local lawmakers.
Senate Republicans voted near-unanimously to acquit Trump of two impeachment charges brought by House Democrats, filed after they said Trump pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate political enemies in an alleged quid pro quo for arms shipments. The Republican Party remained unified -- denying requests for witnesses and seeking a swift end to the trial -- with the sole exception of Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who voted to remove Trump from office in one of the two votes.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., suggested the November election should serve as the sole referendum on Trump's behavior in office.
"While some of President Trump's actions were inappropriate, they did not come close to meeting the very high bar required to justify overturning the last election, removing him from office and kicking him off the ballot in an election that has already begun," Toomey said in a written statement. "In November, the American people will decide for themselves whether President Trump should stay in office. In our democratic system, that's the way it should be."
While Trump's acquittal came as little surprise, the aftermath has heightened divisions in Congress.
After a raucous victory speech in which Trump singled out congressional allies for praise and enemies for attack, he moved to fire two federal officials who testified against him. As Trump prepared to remove ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and national security expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, supporters proclaimed victory.
"After months of investigations conducted at a steep cost to the American people, President Trump has been acquitted for life," Rep. John Joyce, R-13th District, said Wednesday.
Joyce had already lent his name to a new effort to dismiss the impeachment.
On Thursday, he joined 30 fellow Republicans in co-sponsoring a bill to tally the full cost of the impeachment process -- a process the bill's lead sponsor called a "taxpayer-funded political hit job."
But while Trump's allies have reason to celebrate, their victory lap has been marred by public spats on the floor of Congress.
On Tuesday -- just a day before Trump's acquittal -- the president delivered a tense State of the Union address to lawmakers. Trump declined to shake Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's hand; Pelosi later tore up Trump's speech on camera.
The fight prompted angry reactions from House Republicans, who moved to censure the speaker for disrespecting the president. Trump himself said, without evidence, that Pelosi's move "broke the law."
Joyce joined the effort to admonish Pelosi, co-sponsoring a resolution to formally criticize her. The House voted Thursday to drop the resolution.
With Trump still fuming and Republicans moving to further punish those who opposed him -- Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., said Romney should be expelled from the GOP -- it seems unlikely that impeachment will soon be forgotten.
Despite all the sound and fury, some Democratic senators argued that the trial remained incomplete.
"It is unfortunate," Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., wrote, "so many of my Republican colleagues voted last week to overrule the will of the American people and block additional witnesses and documents that would speak directly to the president's conduct. America deserved a fair trial and it got a cover-up."
Early primary bill advances
In the wake of a chaotic launch to the Democratic presidential primary, Pennsylvania lawmakers are moving closer to a long-discussed goal: an earlier race in the state.
A bill to move the state's primary to the third week of March during presidential election years passed the Senate unanimously on Jan. 29, paving the way for a potential House vote. If it becomes law, the state could get far more attention from presidential hopefuls, whose races are often far along by the time the state votes.
Pennsylvania's primary this year is on April 28, nearly two months after "Super Tuesday" -- the early March date in which a slew of key states vote for party nominees.
"In most presidential elections, the outcome is largely decided before our voters have a chance to cast their vote," Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia, the bill's primary sponsor, said last year in a memo to colleagues. "My bill will move Pennsylvania's presidential primary election day to the third Tuesday of March. This will allow our voters to have a significant say in the outcome of these essential elections, while not running afoul of any rules set forth by the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee."
A handful of early states hold outsized power over presidential primaries, drawing millions of dollars in ad and travel spending every four years.
The early races aren't without controversy. The Iowa Democratic caucuses -- a complicated system of in-person gatherings held in lieu of a primary -- yielded mixed results, multiple days of delays and an effective split decision last week between Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Candidates and pundits criticized the convoluted process; Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called publicly for a recanvass of the results.
Calls to push back or eliminate the caucus could help other states snag a bigger say over the primary process.
Pa. poll shows wide Democrat field
While Democratic hopefuls push through the decisive early states, Pennsylvania voters are making their choices -- although the field could be decidedly smaller by the time it reaches the state.
In a Franklin & Marshall College poll released late last month, former Vice President Joe Biden continued to lead the field in Pennsylvania, although his vote share had been cut 8 points since October. Sanders and Buttigieg rose by a few percent each, although a high margin of error means the poll doesn't necessarily reflect the changes in detail.
Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., remained nearly tied for second behind Biden in the January poll.
Ward blight bill gets broad backing
A bill by state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, that would allow tax breaks for improving blighted properties cleared a House committee unanimously on Tuesday.
Ward's bill would allow municipalities to approve tax breaks for developers who build or improve upon properties designated as blighted -- those that have become dangerous, run-down or abandoned. The bill would allow 100-percent breaks on mixed-use improvements for the first three years, with property developers paying more taxes over several more years.
The bill cleared the House Urban Affairs Committee unanimously Tuesday, having already passed the Senate in a 49-0 vote last year. It now awaits a potential vote by the full House.