US Senator Rand Paul declared former President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate “dead on arrival” on Tuesday after 45 Senate Republicans voted against suspending the process, deeming it unconstitutional.
Rand, a Kentucky Republican, called for a procedural vote on holding a trial, saying the Senate should not address the impeachment article against Trump filed by the House this month because Trump is now out of office.
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If a trial continued, Trump would become the first ex-president to face an impeachment trial.
In Paul’s opinion, the 45 Republican votes against a trial proved his point – and probably made any future trial debatable.
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“If you voted to be unconstitutional, how in the world would you vote to condemn someone for it?” Paul told reporters after the vote, according to Politico. “This vote indicates that it is over. The trial is over.”
Paul added in a Twitter message that the vote showed that the House’s impeachment case – accusing Trump of “inciting an insurrection” in connection with the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill – was “dead on arrival”.
On Tuesday night, during an appearance on “FOX News Primetime” with Maria Bartiromo, “Paul addressed what he considered a double standard for Democrats.
“One of Bernie Sanders ‘supporters came to the football field, almost killed Steve Scalise … but nobody spoke of impeachment Bernie Sanders. Maxine Waters said,’ Get up in their face ‘- Cory Booker too -‘ Become a mafia, we want you to mug them in restaurants and cause confusion. ‘That sounds like an incitement to violence, but no one is talking about impeaching Maxine Waters, no one is talking about impeaching Bernie Sanders or Cory Booker for saying “Get up on face of them “.
“So it is a significant hypocrisy and a double standard what they are presenting and they should be called to that. No one should be ashamed to call them their hypocrisy.”
The only five Republican senators who supported putting Trump on trial were longtime critics of Trump – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah. They voted along with 50 Democrats for the 55-45 count.
On the floor before the vote, Paul also claimed that the absence of the Supreme Court president also rendered the Senate’s impeachment trial unconstitutional. Court President John Roberts said he would not chair the trial because Trump is no longer president.
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“Impeachment is for removal from office and the accused here has already left office,” argued Paul before the procedural vote. “Hyperpartisan Democrats are about to drag our great country into the gutter of grudge and the vitriol like never before in the history of our nation.”
He also said that an impeachment trial in the Senate would be “the antithesis of unity” in a nation seeking healing after years of partisan division.
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Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. argued that Paul’s assessment of the situation was “totally wrong”, claiming that it had already “been completely unmasked by constitutional academics across the political spectrum”. Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution states that employees can be prevented from taking office again through impeachment, said Schumer.
The House voted to impeach Trump on January 13, a week after protesters stormed the Capitol after a rally close to Trump on the day that Congress met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory at the Electoral College on December 14. The vote was postponed, but resumed later that night after the protesters were expelled from the Capitol.
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this story.