Several Republican senators on Sunday discouraged suggestions that the House could convict former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial.
“Well, first of all, I think the trial is stupid,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Told Fox News Sunday. “I think it is counterproductive. We already have a campfire in this country and [impeachment is] taking a lot of gasoline and throwing it over the fire. “
Rubio added that he believes Trump “has some responsibility for what happened” during deadly Capitol riots earlier this month, but that he does not believe that impeachment is the right way to approach the issue. He also said it would be “arrogant” to say that Trump should be prevented from running for office again.
“The first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I will do it because I think it is bad for America,” he said. “If you want to hold people accountable, there are other ways to do that, especially for the president.”
Rubio said that impeachment “will make it more difficult to do important things and will only continue to fuel those divisions that paralyzed the country and made us a country of people who hate each other”.
Speaking with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Senator Mike Rounds, RS.D., called the impeachment trial “a moot point.”
“Because I think Donald Trump is no longer the president now, he is the former president,” said Rounds, adding that he does not believe that the impeachment of a former president is constitutionally viable and that a trial will remove other items from the Senate agenda. , including confirmation from President Joe Biden’s office.
A Congressional Research Service report released this week noted that, although the Constitution does not explicitly say whether a former president can be removed, scholars “who have closely examined the issue have concluded that Congress has the authority to extend the impeachment process. to employees who are no longer in the office. “
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., announced on Friday that a trial would begin in early February under an agreement signed between Democrats and Republicans. To condemn the president, at least 17 Republicans would have to join all Democrats. If convicted, the Senate will be able to assess whether to ban Trump from a future run for office.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Who strongly criticized Trump after the turmoil, said he was undecided about the former president’s sentencing. Meanwhile, Republicans like McConnell or the handful of Republican Party members who voted in favor of Trump’s sentencing have faced strong reaction from conservatives.
In an interview for ABC’s “This Week”, Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., Declined to say that the election was not stolen from the president – a sentiment that led to the January 6 attack in the first place. For months, Trump and his allies made false claims about widespread electoral fraud and other issues of electoral integrity.
Paul promised to spend the next two years investigating the election and said that “you will not be intimidated by the liberals in the media who say, there is no evidence here and you are a liar if you talk about electoral fraud”.
In “Meet the Press”, Rounds said that although he believes “the election was fair”, he supports the investigation to “show it to the American people”.
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he will decide how to vote on the impeachment trial after being presented with the case. Romney was the only Republican to vote in favor of Trump’s sentencing during his first impeachment trial last year.
He added that he believes it is “quite clear” that a post-presidential impeachment is constitutional and that it was appropriate for Trump to be removed from 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,” he said. “If not, what is it?”
In “This Week”, Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Pointed to the 1876 impeachment trial of former War Secretary William Belknap – who was tried after resigning from office – as a precedent for the impeachment trial of a former officer.
“I think we will have more and more evidence in the coming weeks – as if it were not enough that he sent an angry crowd down [the National Mall] to invade the Capitol, I didn’t try to stop it, and a police officer was killed, “said Klobuchar.” I really don’t know what else you need to know. The facts were there. We saw it right there on the platform during the opening, as we could still see the spray paint on the bottom of many of the columns. “
