How Did The Impeachment Vote Play Out
Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican senator to cross the aisle and convict Mr Trump, on the first charge of abuse of power.
Despite Democratic hopes, two other moderate Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, did not join Mr Romney in voting to convict the president.
Some Republican senators criticised Mr Trump’s behaviour in recent days, but said it did not rise to the level of impeachment.
Had failed presidential candidate devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!
Donald J. Trump
Three centrist Democratic senators who Republicans had hoped would side with them instead voted to convict Mr Trump.
They were Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Doug Jones of Alabama.
A two-thirds majority vote was needed to remove Mr Trump, which was always going to be a long shot in a 100-seat chamber controlled by his party.
Will Justice John Roberts Or Someone Else Preside Over The Trial
Another question that could affect the trial is whether Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts presides. Though the Constitution dictates Roberts would preside over an impeachment trial of a president, as he did during Trump’s first trial, it doesn’t address the case of a former president another question that has left constitutional scholars divided.
Some experts believe Roberts would be able to decide whether to preside over the trial, while others say it would be up to the Senate.
Suzanna Sherry, constitutional law expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who is an authority on impeachment, called it an “open question” and something on which the Senate should try to agree on.
Kent Greenfield, a constitutional law professor at Boston College, argued it could go either way. “The reality is that the text isn’t clear that it would be required of him,” he said.
If the chief justice doesn’t preside, which is laid out in the Constitution to avoid the political conflicts of a vice president or senator overseeing the arguments, either Vice President Kamala Harris or Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Senate pro tempore, would oversee the trial.
Stacey Plaskett: Trump Trial Needed ‘more Senators With Spines Not More Witnesses’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito both cited constitutional concerns in their decision to vote to acquit Trump.
Virgin Islands House Del. Stacey Plaskett, another impeachment manager, told NPR’s Weekend Edition that they didn’t “reverse course” on witnesses but instead succeeded in adding Herrera Beutler’s statement describing a conversation between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump as the attack was ongoing.
“I know that people have a lot of angst and they can’t believe that the Senate did what they did . But what we needed were senators, more senators with spines, not more witnesses,” Plaskett said.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close ally of President Biden, reportedly urged House managers to relent on witnesses. He told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that spending “months fighting over witnesses” wouldn’t have been worth it.
“What the House managers needed wasn’t more witnesses or more evidence, what we all needed was more Republican courage,” he said. “This was the most bipartisan verdict in American history, a strong rebuke to President Trump, but frankly at the end of the day, the trial had reached its natural conclusion.”
Seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump, after 10 GOP House members voted to impeach Trump for inciting the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol.
Read Also: Donald Trump’s Father Arrested At Kkk
Donald Trump Is Impeached And Faces Trial In The Us Senate
Donald Trump has become the third US president in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives, setting up a trial in the Senate that will decide whether he remains in office.
The House voted on two charges – that the president had abused his power and that he had obstructed Congress.
Nearly all Democrats voted for the charges and every Republican against.
President Trump’s Republicans control the Senate so it is highly unlikely he will be removed from power.
Democrats are already unhappy at the way the trial could be held. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has now indicated it might delay sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, in order to bargain on the terms of the proceedings.
This could put off the trial for an indefinite period, denying Mr Trump his expected acquittal.
Mr Trump remained defiant as the voting took place, telling a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan: “While we’re creating jobs and fighting for Michigan, the radical left in Congress is consumed with envy and hatred and rage.”
Agreement Reached To Avoid Witnesses In Trump’s Impeachment Trial
The heart of Trump’s legal team’s argument was supposed to be that theSenate did not have jurisdiction to take up the trial of a former federal official. That was certainly part of it and wasa message that resonated with the overwhelming majority of GOP senators.
In a vote on the first day of the trial, for example, 44 Republicans voted to say it was unconstitutional for the Senate to try a president after he left office. That’s despite a 145-year-old precedent in which the Senate voted that it was constitutional to try a former Cabinet official for impeachment.
The constitutionality argument allowed many Republican senators to sidestep the merits of the case against Trump. That’s even though the lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on Thursday closed his side’s arguments by imploring senators that the constitutionality of the trial had been resolved by the earlier vote.
You May Like: How Many Lies Has Trump Told To Date
Full National Impact Of 2nd Trump Impeachment Could Take Decades To Unpack
Donald Trumps status as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice may be his most lasting legacy one that is far different than how he might have been remembered prior to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol January 6 by his supporters.
Presidential historian Barbara Perry says that despite Trumps reputation for norm-breaking, racism and online bullying, the former president fulfilled many of the main promises he made on the campaign trail in 2016.
Maybe more than most presidents, he made good on his promises, says Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
He lowered taxes on the wealthy. He limited and reduced federal regulations. He put conservatives to the tune of over 200 federal judges on the lower federal courts and three conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court. He engaged in strong-arm tactics against China. He built part of his wall on the southern border and attempted to reduce, and succeeded in reducing, illegal immigration.
Forecasting how historians will perceive and treat the 45th president decades from now is a risky endeavor. Perspectives change over time. Yet Perry and other students of politics agree that Trumps trial for inciting insurrection, which begins this week, will likely obscure or taint the most notable accomplishments achieved during his presidency.
Historic proceeding
Impeachment
Serious disruption
Insurrection
Road to healing
Donald Trump’s Second Impeachment: Five Key Takeaways
1. There are signs of a deep split within the Republican party
Some of the most high-profile members of Republican leadership arent denouncing the Democratic effort. Quite the contrary. Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, announced on Tuesday that she would join Democrats and a handful of House Republicans in voting to impeach Trump.
2. The most bipartisan impeachment in American history
Unlike the last time Democrats impeached Trump, theres a higher level of bipartisan support for the move. Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader and top-ranking Republican in that chamber, said during a speech on Wednesday that Trump was partially to blame for the mob assault on the Capitol last week.
3. The vast majority of Republicans refused to concede any fault
Throughout the debate on Wednesday two patterns emerged among the arguments Republicans made: deflect and denounce. Republicans repeatedly denounced the mob attack last week.
4. The Senate is a mystery
How things will shake out in the Senate is a mystery. McConnell wrote in a letter to colleagues that he has not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.
5. Democrats security concerns seem well-founded
Read more:
Recommended Reading: Trumps Lies To Date
What Will They Argue
The impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers both laid out their cases in legal briefs before the start of the trial.
The Democrats plan to establish that Trump is “personally responsible” for inciting the Capitol riot, and that he did so as part of a monthslong effort “to overturn the results of an election.”
Trump’s legal team has accused Democrats of political opportunism and “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” while defending Trump’s remarks at the rally as constitutionally protected speech.
Both sides have already clashed over the question of whether the trial itself is constitutional, since Trump has already left office.
“The Senate is being asked to do something patently ridiculous,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Try a private citizen in a process that is designed to remove him from an office that he no longer holds.”
The impeachment managers had preemptively replied that “there is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution.”
Deaths Connected To Riot
A Capitol police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.
Lawmakers scrambled for safety and hid as rioters took control of the Capitol, delaying by hours the tally of Electoral College votes that was the last step in finalizing Biden’s victory.
The Republican lawmakers who chose to vote yes, including Cheney, were unswayed by the president’s logic. Their support of impeachment cleaved the Republican leadership, and the party itself.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Unlike a year ago, Trump faces impeachment as a weakened leader, having lost his own re-election as well as the Senate Republican majority.
The president was said to be livid by the perceived disloyalty from McConnell and Cheney, as calls mounted for her ouster.
He was also deeply frustrated that he could not hit back with his shuttered Twitter account, the fear of which has kept most Republicans in line for years, according to White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing who weren’t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
Read Also: How Many Bankruptcies Has Trump Filed
Biden Wants Senate To Handle Constitutional Responsibilities On Impeachment Along With Urgent Business
From CNN’s Sarah Mucha and Jeff Zeleny
President-elect Joe Biden released a statement Wednesday night in reaction to the House’s impeachment of President Trump, reiterating his expressed hope that the Senate will be able to carry out their regular legislative duties while dealing with impeachment responsibilities.
This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy, Biden says. I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.
While not stating his position either way, Biden stated that the violence at the Capitol was incited by the President, saying it “was carried out by political extremists and domestic terrorists, who were incited to this violence by President Trump.”
Biden added: From confirmations to key posts such as Secretaries for Homeland Security, State, Defense, Treasury, and Director of National Intelligence, to getting our vaccine program on track, and to getting our economy going again. Too many of our fellow Americans have suffered for too long over the past year to delay this urgent work.
Trump Celebrates His Acquittal Says The Impeachment Was Part Of A ‘witch Hunt’
The safety of Pence, and the assertion that Trump willfully did not act swiftly and decisively enough to protect his own vice president, was a point that was repeated throughout the closing arguments.
“When the vice president of the United States escaped a violent mob that entered this Capitol building, seeking to hang him and calling out ‘traitor, traitor, traitor,’ when they shut down the counting of the electoral college votes, is this the future you imagine for our kids?” Raskin asked.
Raskin used the closing argument to push back against the defense’s claim that Trump’s actions after the insurrection began aren’t relevant.
Impeachment manager Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., played a video montage of Trump repeating the false claim that the election had been rigged.
“This was not one speech. This was a deliberate, purposeful effort by Donald Trump over many months that resulted in the well-organized mob attack on Jan. 6,” she said.
Read Also: Was Melania A Hooker
Senate Acquits Trump In Impeachment Trial Again
A majority of senators voted to hold Trump guilty on one charge of inciting an insurrection, but the 57-43 tally fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction. In all, seven Republicans voted to convict the former president, making Saturday’s vote the most bipartisan in a presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history.
“While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute,” Biden said. “Even those opposed to the conviction, like Senate Minority Leader McConnell, believe Donald Trump was guilty of a ‘disgraceful dereliction of duty’ and ‘practically and morally responsible for provoking’ the violence unleashed on the Capitol.”
Until his comments on Saturday, Biden had remained mostly silent about his predecessor’s impeachment, telling reporters last week that he did not even plan to watch the trial. He neither fully supported nor opposed the vote by the House of Representatives last month to impeach Trump, saying he wanted to leave the matter up to Congress. He also declined to say whether the Senate should move to convict.
House Democrats Deliver Trump Impeachment Charge To Senate
By Patricia Zengerle, Susan Cornwell
6 Min Read
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives delivered to the Senate on Monday a charge that former President Donald Trump incited insurrection in a speech to supporters before the deadly attack on the Capitol, setting in motion his second impeachment trial.
Nine House Democrats who will serve as prosecutors in Trumps trial, accompanied by the clerk of the House and the acting sergeant at arms, carried the charge against Trump to the Senate in a solemn procession across the Capitol.
Wearing masks to protect against COVID-19, they filed through the ornate Capitol Rotunda and into the Senate chamber, following the path that a mob of Trump supporters took on Jan. 6 as they clashed with police.
On arrival in the Senate, the lead House impeachment manager, Representative Jamie Raskin, read out the charge. Donald John Trump engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors by inciting violence against the government of the United States, he said.
Ten House Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump on Jan. 13. But Senate Democrats will need the support of 17 Republicans to convict him in the evenly divided chamber, a steep climb given the continued allegiance to Trump among the Republican Partys conservative base of voters.
President Joe Biden said on Monday he did not believe there would be enough votes to convict Trump, according to CNN, citing a brief interview with Trumps Democratic successor.
Related Coverage
Read Also: How Much Does It Cost To Stay In Trump Hotel
