WASHINGTON (AP) – Almost all Senate jurors said they would hear evidence of Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, but most minds were probably already settled before the trial began. Democrats would need a minimum of 17 Republicans to vote with them to condemn Trump for inciting insurrection, which seems unlikely.
Still, Democrats say they hope to win enough Republicans to condemn the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots, in which five people died. If Trump were convicted, the Senate could take a second vote to ban him from running for office again. The final vote is likely on Saturday.
Here’s a look at the Republicans that Democrats are watching as they make their closing arguments in the case:
THE TRUMP’S COMMON CRITICS
The Republicans Sens. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Ben Sasse from Nebraska, Mitt Romney from Utah and Susan Collins from Maine made it clear that they believe Trump incited the riots on January 6. While neither is an impediment to voting for the conviction, they have joined the Democrats twice to vote against the Republican Party’s efforts to reject the trial.
Collins said after the disturbances that Trump “has a responsibility to work in the crowd and incite that crowd”. Murkowski asked Trump to resign after the attack on the Capitol, telling a local newspaper three days later that “I want you out. He’s already done enough damage. ”
Romney tweeted on January 6: “What happened at the United States Capitol today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States.” During the trial, Democrats showed a video of Romney narrowly escaping the crowd, redirected by a Capitol police officer as he unknowingly ran towards the violent crowd.
Sasse said Trump “lied to” Americans and the “consequences are now to be found in five dead Americans and a ruined Capitol building”. In a recent video, he said Republican politics shouldn’t be about “a guy’s weird worship”.
Murkowski, Collins and Sasse voted for Trump’s acquittal during his first impeachment trial, in which Democrats accused him of abusing his power by urging the President of Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Romney was the Republican Party’s only guilty vote, leaving Democrats far from condemnation.
EXIT
Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring from the Senate in 2022, also voted twice with Democrats to move ahead with the trial. Like Murkowski, he asked Trump to resign after the disturbances, saying it would be the best way to “put that person in the rearview mirror for us”. Toomey also aggressively rejected Trump’s false claims that he had beaten Pennsylvania and other states in the election.
Three other Republican senators said they would not run again in two years, potentially freeing them to vote against Trump and voters at the party’s rabies base – Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby. All three voted to reject the trial, but Portman says he still keeps an open mind about the conviction.
Burr said on Thursday that he would not comment on the trial. Shelby said this week that impeachment managers had a “strong point” that Trump could have acted earlier to stop the violence, but said the trial was unconstitutional because Trump is now out of office.
CASSIDY AS WILD CARD
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who won re-election by a large margin in 2020, voted two weeks ago in an effort by the Republican Party to reject the trial. But he changed his vote this week, saying that Trump’s lawyers did a “terrible” job of arguing that the trial was unconstitutional.
Cassidy, who made extensive notes throughout the trial, said on Friday that managers had raised some “intriguing questions” during their two days of discussions. He said he expected Trump’s lawyers to respond fully and that he is “trying to approach him objectively”.
During the question and answer session of the trial on Friday afternoon, Cassidy asked Trump’s lawyers about a conversation the then president had with Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville on January 6, shortly after Vice President Mike Pence have been evacuated from the Senate. Tuberville says he told Trump that Pence had been taken away, making it clear that Trump probably knew of the danger at that point, although he tweeted criticism of Pence after that for not trying to overturn the election. Cassidy asked the lawyers if it showed that Trump “was tolerant of Vice President Pence’s intimidation?”
Lawyer Michael van der Veen dismissed Tuberville’s account as a “rumor,” an answer that Cassidy later said was not enough.
THUNE TAKES TRUMP HEAT
South Dakota Senator John Thune, the second Senate Republican, rejected Trump’s attempts to challenge President Biden’s election victory certification. He predicted that the effort would “fall like a bullet to the ground” in the Senate.
That comment drew a furious response from the former president, who urged Governor Kristi Noem to run against Thune in the Republican Party primaries, an idea she immediately rejected.
Still, Thune voted twice to close the case. He said on Friday that he was keeping an open mind and indicated that he might be open to a censorship resolution if Trump were acquitted.
“I know some of my colleagues who have seen at least some resolutions, which I think could attract some support,” said Thune.
EYES ON McCONNELL
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell voted twice to reject the trial, indicating he will vote for absolution. But he also said that Trump “provoked” the mob, which was “fed with lies”.
Shortly after the attack, McConnell privately told associates that he had ended Trump and publicly said he was undecided about the impeachment. He told Republicans the decision on Trump’s guilt is a vote of conscience.
His neutral position contrasts sharply with the management of the first trial, when he protected Trump and opposed Democrats’ calls to call witnesses.
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