WASHINGTON – Forty-five Republican senators voted on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is unconstitutional, suggesting that he will almost certainly be acquitted a second time.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky forced a Senate vote on a motion to end the trial, arguing that the impeachment process would be unconstitutional, as Trump is now a private citizen.
The vast majority of Republicans in the upper house, 45 of them, agreed, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who criticized Trump after the January 6 siege of the United States Capitol, which he is accused of inciting.
The Senate requires a two-thirds majority to condemn, which means that 17 Republicans would have to vote with Democrats – an apparently unlikely outcome, as Tuesday’s vote indicates.
Only five Republican senators broke with their party on Tuesday afternoon and voted with Democrats to allow President Trump’s impeachment trial to continue, but Paul’s measure was still blocked in a 55-45 vote.
The GOP Sens. Mitt Romney from Utah, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Susan Collins from Maine, Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, who is serving his last term, crossed the hall.
Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump on charges of abuse of power during his previous impeachment trial.
Ten Republican lawmakers also allied with Democrats in Trump’s impeachment in the House in a 232-197 vote on January 13.
Although the motion is blocked, Republicans view Tuesday’s defeat as a victory.
If fewer than 34 lawmakers were on Paul’s side, it would suggest that Trump may have been convicted, but he easily reached that limit.
Paul told reporters that the vote meant that the impeachment trial would be “dead on arrival”.
In a fiery speech to the Senate floor Tuesday, Paul said Democrats’ calls for unity were hollow and that the impeachment of a former president and ordinary citizen was “the antithesis of unity”.
“Private citizens are not impeached; impeachment is for dismissal from office. And the accused here has already stepped down, ”said Paul.
“Hyperpartisan Democrats are about to drag our great country into the gutter of bitterness and the vitriol like never before in our nation’s history,” he continued.
All 100 senators took their oath on Tuesday afternoon as jurors in Trump’s second impeachment trial, which will be overseen by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and not Supreme Court Judge John Roberts, as Trump is no longer president .
