WASHINGTON (AP) – As the House prepares to bring the impeachment charge against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, a growing number of Republican senators say they are opposed to the process, decreasing the chances of the former president being convicted of the charge that he incited a siege on the US Capitol.
House Democrats will take the only impeachment charge of “incitement to insurrection” at the Capitol on Monday night, a rare and ceremonial walk by prosecutors to the Senate who will defend their case. They hope that Trump’s strong Republican denunciations after the January 6 riot will translate into a separate condemnation and vote to prevent Trump from taking office again.
But instead, the GOP’s passions seem to have cooled since the insurrection. Now that Trump’s presidency is over, Republican senators who will serve as jurors at the trial are gathering in their legal defense, as they did during their first impeachment trial last year.
“I think the trial is stupid, I think it is counterproductive,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. He said that “the first chance I have to vote to end this trial, I will do it” because he believes it would be bad for the country and would further inflame party divisions.
Trump is the first ex-president to face impeachment trial, and this will test his dominance over the Republican Party, as well as the legacy of his administration, which came to an end when a crowd of loyal supporters responded to his cry of protest when he attacked the Capitol and trying to overthrow the election of Joe Biden. The proceedings will also force Democrats, who have full control of the party in the White House and in Congress, to balance their promise to hold the former president accountable while rushing to fulfill Biden’s priorities.
Arguments at the Senate trial will begin in the week of February 8. Leaders from both parties agreed on the short delay to give the Trump team and House prosecutors time to prepare and the Senate a chance to confirm some of the nominees for Biden’s cabinet. Democrats say the extra days will allow more evidence to appear about the riots of Trump’s supporters, while Republicans hope to create a unified defense for Trump.
Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., Said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday that he hopes the clarity in the details of what happened on January 6 “makes it clear to my colleagues and the American people that we need some responsibility . “
Coons questioned how his colleagues who were on the Capitol that day could see the insurrection as something other than an “impressive violation” of the tradition of peaceful transfers of power.
“It is a critical moment in American history and we have to look at it and look closely,” said Coons.
An early vote to reject the trial was unlikely to succeed, as Democrats now control the Senate. Still, the growing Republican opposition indicates that many Republican senators would end up voting to absolve Trump. Democrats would need the support of 17 Republicans – a high demand – to condemn him.
When the House charged Trump on January 13, exactly a week after the siege, Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Said he did not believe the Senate had constitutional authority to convict Trump after he stepped down. On Sunday, Cotton said “the more I talk to other Republican senators, the more they start to line up” behind that argument.
“I think many Americans will find it strange that the Senate is spending its time trying to convict and dismiss a man who stepped down a week ago,” said Cotton.
Democrats reject this argument, pointing to an 1876 impeachment by a war secretary who had already resigned and to the views of many jurists. Democrats also say that a calculation of the first Capitol invasion since the War of 1812, perpetrated by rioters instigated by a president who told them to “fight like hell” against the electoral results that were being counted at the time, is necessary. the country can move forward and ensure that such a siege never happens again.
Some Republican senators agreed with the Democrats, although not close to the number it will take to condemn Trump.
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he believes there is a “overriding opinion” that an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.
“I believe that what is being claimed and what we have seen, which is an incitement to insurrection, is an offense liable to impeachment,” said Romney. “If not, what is it?”
But Romney, the only Republican to vote to condemn Trump when the Senate acquitted the then president at last year’s trial, appears to be an isolated case.
Senator Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, said he believed a trial was a “moot point” after a president’s term ended, “and I think it would be very difficult for them to try to do so in the Senate. ”
On Friday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of Trump who has helped him form a legal team, asked the Senate to reject the idea of a post-presidential trial – potentially with a vote to reject the prosecution – and The suggested Republicans will examine whether Trump’s words on January 6 were legally “incitement”.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who said last week that Trump “teased” his supporters before the riot, did not say how he was going to vote or argued any legal strategy. The Kentucky senator told his Republican colleagues that it will be a vote of conscience.
One of the mayor’s nine impeachment managers, Nancy Pelosi, said that Trump’s encouragement to his loyalists before the riot was “an extraordinarily heinous presidential crime.”
Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, D-Pennsylvania, said, “I mean, think about it. It is only two and a half weeks since the president gathered a crowd at the White House Ellipse. He urged them with his words. And then he lit the match. ”
Trump supporters invaded the Capitol and interrupted the electoral count, as he falsely claimed that there was a major election fraud and that it was stolen by Biden. Trump’s claims have been rejected in court, including by Trump-appointed judges and state election officials.
Rubio and Romney were on “Fox News Sunday”, Cotton appeared on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” and Romney was also on CNN’s “State of the Union”, as was Dean. Rounds was interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.
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The Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.