WASHINGTON – Donald Trump made history when he became the first president to undergo two impeachment cases, but he made no history as the first president to be sentenced.
The Senate voted 57-43 on Saturday in a rare weekend session to acquit Trump for his alleged role in the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol, falling short of the 67 votes required by the constitution for a conviction.
Hitting the two-thirds limit needed to convict never seemed likely, as the Senate is evenly divided 50-50 between parties. Seven Republicans voted against party lines – the biggest impeachment defection from a president’s party. Seventeen Republican votes were needed to condemn.
The Republicans who voted to condemn Trump were Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah.
Romney’s “guilty” vote in Trump’s initial impeachment trial last February made him the first senator to vote to convict a president of the same party.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell voted for Trump’s absolution, a decision that likely influenced other Republicans who weighed their votes. McConnell is the most influential Republican in the House and the oldest Republican leader of all time.
Senate votes to absolve former President Donald Trump in second impeachment trial
The Senate voted to absolve former President Donald Trump for inciting insurrection in his second impeachment trial. The 57 guilty votes fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict him.
The vote to absolve him leaves the party stuck in its struggle to define itself in the post-Trump presidency.
On January 6, protesters stormed the United States Capitol while Congress voted to affirm the election of Joe Biden as the 46th president. Five people died, including a rowdy shot and a policeman.
The impeachment trial, which began on Tuesday with the debate over its constitutionality since Trump was no longer in office, delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled to his own security that day, they recognized they are still facing.
Just watching the graphic videos – protesters shouting menacingly by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the vote count – the senators said they began to understand how dangerously close the country has come to chaos. Hundreds of protesters stormed the building, taking over the Senate. Some engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the police.
House prosecutors argued that Trump’s rallying cry to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” for his presidency at the time that Congress was meeting was part of an orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims that sparked the crowd.
House managers make final arguments at 2nd Trump impeachment trial
Democrats used their closing arguments to demonstrate their claim that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the riot in the Capitol building on January 6.
Trump’s lawyers countered in just three hours on Friday that Trump’s words were not intended to incite violence and that impeachment is nothing more than a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from serving in office. again.
Then, on Saturday, when the process was expected to close quickly, the trial was confused when senators voted to consider hearing witnesses.
The question was whether to subpoena Washington State Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment in the House. She said in a statement on Friday that Trump rejected McCarthy’s call to cancel the protesters. Democrats see it as key corroborating evidence that confirms “the deliberate abandonment of the president’s duty and the abandonment of duty as commander in chief.”
Fifty-five senators voted in favor of the motion to consider witnesses, including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mitt Romney of Utah. As soon as they did, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina changed her vote to join them in the 55-45 vote.
Trump’s lawyers were opposed to calling witnesses, with lawyer Michael van der Veen saying it would open the door for him to call about 100 people. He said the depositions could be made at his law firm in Philadelphia, causing laughter from senators.
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The statement by Trump’s impeachment lawyer, Michael van der Veen, was met with laughter in the room, which visibly angered van der Veen.
The situation was resolved when Herrera Beutler’s statement on the call was read aloud for senators to consider as evidence. As part of the deal, Democrats abandoned the planned deposition and Republicans abandoned the threat to call their own witnesses. The case then proceeded with final arguments.
In closing arguments, chief prosecutor Michael van der Veen backed down on the procedural argument that Republican senators adopted in their own reasoning for the case what he said was a “false impeachment judgment”.
“Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,” said Michael van der Veen. “The act of incitement never happened.”
After less than three hours of final arguments, the Senate read its vote to absolve.
Republicans were eager to end the trial and discuss Trump and the Capitol invasion behind them. Democrats also had a reason to move on, as the Senate was unable to move forward on Biden’s agenda, including relief from COVID-19 with the impeachment trial still in session.
Biden barely gave his opinion on the proceedings and was spending the weekend with his family at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.
This story was reported from Detroit. The Associated Press contributed.