The Senate acquitted former President Trump on Saturday in his second impeachment trial, even when seven members of his own party made a historic reprimand by joining the Democrats in the vote to condemn him for inciting last month’s death on Capitol Hill from United States.
The 57-43 vote to declare Trump guilty fell short of the 67 votes needed for sentencing, but it was the most bipartisan vote in any presidential impeachment trial, exposing the fractures in a divided Republican Party over its future after Trump’s presidency.
The vote was immediately followed by a violent accusation by Trump in the Senate by minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Who voted for absolution saying that the impeachment of a former president was unconstitutional, but painted Trump as an unbalanced threat to democratic institutions.
The Republicans who voted for the conviction were Sens. Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Trump is the first American president to be charged twice, and this trial, which lasted only five days, was the first by a former president. The Chamber impeached last month on charges of inciting an uprising on January 6, when a violent crowd of its supporters invaded and looted the Capitol. The attack left five dead, including a police officer.
“It is now clear, without a doubt, that Trump supported the actions of the crowd and therefore he should be condemned,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) In his closing arguments. “If that is not a reason for impeachment – if it is not a serious crime and misdemeanor against the Republic of the United States of America – then nothing is. President Trump must be condemned for the security and protection of our democracy and our people ”.
“This judgment, ultimately, is not about Donald Trump,” continued Raskin. “The country and the world know who Donald Trump is. This judgment is about who we are. “
In their closing arguments, as they did during the trial, House Democrats displayed a collection of videos that showed the explicit violence of the protesters’ attack, including a previously confidential security video that revealed how close the crowd came to lawmakers and officials. . The videos – some shot just steps from where the trial took place – took an emotional hit on the case.
Trump’s lawyers contested that the former president did nothing wrong, that his speech was protected by the 1st Amendment and that his often pugilistic rhetoric was not meant to be taken literally. The mafia, Trump’s legal team said, acted on its own.
“There was no evidence that Trump intended his words to incite violence,” lawyer Michael van der Veen told senators in his closing argument. “The violence was pre-planned and premeditated by a group of independent actors … It wasn’t his words that started it.”
Most Republicans agreed or argued that the Constitution did not even allow the Senate to hear the trial because Trump was now an ordinary citizen – a sentiment that many legal experts have contested.
Despite the acquittal, the voting format reflected a Republican Party reassessing its ties to Trump. McConnell, looking anxious for some distance, delivered a scathing speech against his actions. He accused Trump of happily watching the mob attack on television and suggested that if Trump were still president, he could be guilty of an impeachable crime.
The “mob was attacking the Capitol on their behalf. These criminals carried their flags, ”said McConnell. “The president did not act quickly. He didn’t do his job. He did not take steps to ensure that federal law could be faithfully enforced. ”
The Republican Party leader said Trump was responsible for any crimes he committed and can still be prosecuted in court.
Raskin said McConnell’s comments reflected the potency of the process, noting that the Senate minority leader “made a series of statements that we didn’t even make, saying that this hasn’t essentially ended in a long shot, and that there is a way criminal prosecution for the ex-president. ”
McConnell was the majority leader in the Senate when the House impeached Trump, but he refused to immediately return the Senate to the session and schedule a trial while Trump was still in office.
Trump’s defense team, in turn, celebrated with their fists high as they set off in a subway cart in the basement of the United States Capitol. “We are going to Disney World!” Van der Veen said jokingly.
Trump, in a statement, did not address the actions on Capitol on Jan. 6, but ridiculed the trial as yet another “witch hunt”.
“This was another phase of the biggest witch hunt in the history of our country,” he said in a statement. “No president has ever gone through anything like that.”
Unlike Trump’s first impeachment trial, in which Republicans rushed to defend the president, many Republican senators did not take such steps this time around. The vast majority of the Senate conference condemned the attack and many said that Trump played a role in inciting him, or should have done more to suppress it. Instead of defending Trump’s actions, they cited procedural or constitutional claims in their absolution votes.
Most of the seven Republicans who supported the conviction considered this in silence. Republican leaders made it clear that they were not rooting for support for absolution, instead leaving for a vote of conscience, a nod that senators should not feel indebted to the party line. Burr, for his part, joined other Republicans in an unsuccessful attempt to bar the trial on constitutional grounds, saying that a former president is immune from such punishment. After losing that vote, he said he was open-minded about the conviction.
“I don’t take this decision lightly, but I believe it is necessary,” he said in a statement. “For what he did and what he didn’t do, President Trump violated his oath to maintain, protect and defend the United States Constitution.”
Toomey said that Trump’s actions “have betrayed the trust that millions of us place in him. His betrayal of the Constitution and his oath required condemnation. “
Last year, Romney became the first and, at the time, the only senator to vote guilty in an impeachment process for a president of his own party. The six Republican senators who joined him on Saturday are likely to face a negative reaction from Trump and his allies. Burr and Toomey plan to retire at the end of their term, protecting them from any electoral consequences.
Trump has already threatened to support an opponent in the primaries against Murkowski, the only one of seven senators who vote for the blame and who is running for re-election in 2022. She overcame a defeat in the primaries in 2010 with an editorial campaign.
Murkowski said he suffered from his vote and understands the political ramifications he may face.
“If I can’t say what I believe our president should be defending, then why should I ask the Alaskans to support me?” she said. “I cannot allow my vote, the importance of my vote, to be devalued by whether or not I find it useful for my political ambitions.”
Both Sasse and Cassidy have faced censorship from Republican Party groups at home.
“Our Constitution and our country are more important than anyone. I voted to condemn President Trump because he is guilty, ”said Cassidy.
Despite the widely expected absolution, the last day of discussions was a roller coaster of political drama. Democrats created an unexpected wave of momentum after winning a vote that allowed them to depose a Republican Congresswoman who threatened to testify against Trump – only to hit the brake quickly.
Facing the potential for a protracted struggle that other witnesses could witness, Democrats stalled. Instead, they negotiated an agreement to register a statement by Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.). He said House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) told lawmakers he called Trump during the insurrection, asking the former president to tell protesters to withdraw, but the president did not act.
Herrera Beutler’s actual testimony had the potential to be far more damaging to Trump and his supporters, and Democratic Party activists expressed exasperation at the resignation of the impeachment administrators. But they were weighing the damage that would be inflicted on Republicans against the political price that their own party’s agenda would suffer in Congress through an extended trial.
President Biden is eager to overcome impeachment so that Congress can focus on confirming his nominees and approving a major COVID-19 aid package. A longer trial would have delayed that agenda.
House managers debated until at least 3 am Saturday morning on whether to call witnesses, according to a Democrat familiar with the talks. They did not notify their peers in the Senate of their plan until about 5 minutes before the trial was resumed on Saturday morning. After the vote to call witnesses was successful, it became clear that administrators did not have a comprehensive plan for the next steps, according to the Democrat.
Shortly after mediating the deal with Beutler’s comments, House managers began their final arguments. They were followed by the president’s lawyers.
For much of the week, including Saturday’s session, it became clear that the senators wanted the trial to end quickly. And the lawyers obeyed; neither side has fully used the allocated time. At 3:40 pm, less than six hours after the Senate went into session, the vote was complete.