Mitch McConnell will vote for Trump’s acquittal in second impeachment trial

Mitch McConnell will vote for Trump’s acquittal in second impeachment trial

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The decision almost guarantees that Trump will avoid becoming the first president in American history to be convicted in an impeachment trial. McConnell plans to explain his decision after the final vote, an adviser told CNN.

The typically silent Republican Senate leader rarely broke with Trump in his four years as president. But he led the Senate certification for the presidential election that protesters promised to overthrow, and strongly condemned the violence on Capitol Hill where he served as a senator for 36 years.

Last month, McConnell blamed Trump directly for the deadly mutiny, saying “the crowd was fed with lies” and “provoked by the president and other powerful people”.
Republican senators have already signaled that they would vote to absolve Trump of the charge of “inciting insurrection” and to prevent a subsequent vote on whether to prevent Trump from holding public office.

In a 50-50 Senate, the House’s impeachment managers – all Democrats – need to persuade 17 Republican senators to join all members of their party to condemn Trump. But only five or six indicated they would be willing to do that.

House managers say they will seek witnesses at the impeachment trial
House managers tried to tie Trump’s words to the January 6 violent attack. They showed clips of Trump’s speech before the riot, in which he urged his supporters to “fight like the devil”, “never give up” and “never give in.” They showed senators videos of their colleagues fleeing a pro-Trump crowd , who broke into the US Capitol shouting “stop the theft”. They showed protesters looking for then Vice President Mike Pence and Mayor Nancy Pelosi, and searching the senators’ tables on the floor of the chamber.

Some of Trump’s supporters were dressed in tactical clothes, armed with zippers. Others held Trump 2020 flags, smashed windows with masts and set up a gallows for Pence, who was constitutionally required to oversee the certification of the election and the peaceful transfer of power to Democrats.

But even after witnessing the deadly violence firsthand and being reminded of it again at the alleged crime scene, many Republican senators are concerned about the unprecedented nature of trying a former president in an impeachment trial.

These Republican senators also argue that Trump’s words can be protected by the First Amendment, and note that he also said in his speech that day “to make his voices heard in a peaceful and patriotic way”. They say rioters should be held responsible for their actions, but that the ex-president should not be convicted on charges of inciting them.

This story was updated with further developments on Saturday.

CNN’s Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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