The Senate acquitted former President Trump on Saturday in its second indictment, even as seven members of his own party delivered a historic reprimand by agreeing with Democrats to plead guilty to inciting the deadly uprising last month at the American Capitol.
The 57-43 vote to convict Trump was not the 67 votes needed for a conviction, but it was the most ambiguous vote in any presidential indictment, exposing the fractures in a Republican Party, divided over his future after Trump’s presidency.
The vote was immediately followed by a scathing accusation from Trump on the Senate floor by minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Who voted in favor and said the accusation of a former president was unconstitutional, but Trump as a unhindered threat to democratic institutions.
The Republicans who voted for conviction were Sens Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania. .
Trump is the first U.S. president to be charged twice, and this trial, which lasted just five days, was the first of a former president. The House indicted him last month on charges of inciting the January 6 uprising, when a violent crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol and looted it. Five people were killed in the assault, including a police officer.
“It is now undoubtedly clear that Trump supported the actions of the mob, and therefore he should be found guilty,” Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) Said in his closing remarks. “If it’s not grounds for indictment – if it’s not a major crime and misconduct against the Republic of the United States of America, then there is nothing. President Trump must be found guilty of the safety and security of our democracy and our people. ”
“This trial is ultimately not about Donald Trump,” Raskin continued. “The country and the world know who Donald Trump is. This trial is about who we are. ‘
In their closing remarks, as during the trial, House Democrats played a collection of videos showing graphic violence of the rioting attack, including the confidential security video that has so far shown how close the crowd was to lawmakers and staff. The videos – some are just minutes from the place where the trial took place – were filmed.
Trump’s attorneys objected that the former president did nothing wrong, that his speech was protected by the First Amendment, and that his often pugilistic rhetoric was not meant to be taken literally. Trump’s legal team said the mob acted on their own.
“There was no evidence that Mr. Trump intended to incite his words to violence,” attorney Michael van der Veen told senators in his closing remarks. “The group was pre-planned and pre-planned by a group of independent actors … That was not what set it in motion.”
Most Republicans agreed, or argued, that the Constitution did not even allow the Senate to hear the trial because Trump was now a private citizen – a sentiment that many legal experts disputed.
Despite the acquittal, the form of the vote reflects a Republican Party reevaluating its ties with Trump. McConnell, who sounded eager for a while, unleashed a tight cover against his actions. He accused Trump of happily watching the mob attack on television, and suggested that if he were still president, he would be guilty of an undisputed offense.
The “mob assaulted the Capitol in its name. “These criminals carried his banners,” McConnell said. “The president did not act quickly. He did not do his job. He did not take steps to faithfully enforce federal legislation. ‘
The GOP leader said Trump was responsible for any crimes he committed and could still be executed in court.
Raskin said McConnell’s remarks reflected the strength of the proceedings, pointing out that the Senate Minority Leader “has made a series of statements that we have not even made, saying that they are essentially not over yet. and that there is a path of criminal prosecution for the former president. ”
McConnell was a Senate majority leader when the House accused Trump, but refused to immediately put the Senate back and schedule a trial while Trump was still in office.
Trump’s defense team, meanwhile, celebrated with fistfights as they departed in a subway train in the basement of the US capital. “We’re going to Disney World!” Van der Veen said fascinatingly.
Trump in a statement did not address the action at the Capitol on January 6, but mocked the trial as a ‘witch hunt’.
“This was another phase of the largest witch hunt in the history of our country,” he said in a statement. “No president has ever experienced anything like this.”
Unlike Trump’s first indictment, in which Republicans hurried the president, many GOP senators did not take such steps this time. The vast majority of the Senate conference condemned the attack and many said Trump played a role in inciting it, or he should have done more to suppress it. Instead of defending Trump’s actions, they quoted procedural or constitutional demands in their acquittal votes.
Most of the seven Republicans who support conviction have quietly considered it. Republican leaders have made it clear that they are not whipping up support for acquittal, but have left it to a vote of conscience, a nod that senators should not look at the party line. Burr, in turn, joined other Republicans in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the trial on constitutional grounds, claiming that a former president is immune to such punishment. After losing the vote, he said he was candid about conviction.
“I do not take this decision lightly, but I believe it is necessary,” he said in a statement. “By what he did and did not do, President Trump violated his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the United States Constitution.”
Toomey said Trump’s actions “betrayed the trust that millions of us placed in him. His betrayal of the Constitution and his oath of office required conviction. ”
Last year, Romney became the first and then only senator to vote guilty in an indictment hearing of a president of his own party. The six GOP senators who joined him on Saturday are likely to get backlash from Trump and his allies. Burr and Toomey both plan to retire at the end of their term and protect themselves from any election failure.
Trump has already threatened to back a primary opponent against Murkowski, the only one of the seven senators guilty and who will be re-elected in 2022. She overcame a primary loss in 2010 with an entry campaign.
Murkowski said she was tormented by her voice and understood the political consequences she might face.
“If I can not say what I should stand for my president, then why should I ask Alaskans to stand with me?” she said. “I can not allow my voice, the importance of my voice, to be weakened by the question of whether I feel it is useful for my political ambitions.”
Both Sasse and Cassidy have already gotten suspects from the Republican Party groups at home.
“Our Constitution and our country are more important than any person. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” Cassidy said.
Even with the acquittal generally expected, the last day of arguments was a roller coaster of political drama. Democrats built up an unexpected increase in momentum after winning a vote that allowed them to oust a Republican congresswoman who threatened a damning testimony against Trump – only to brake quickly.
Democrats confronted the potential for a protracted battle that other witnesses could testify about. Rather, they entered into an agreement to put a statement from Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) In the record. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) is said to have told lawmakers he called Trump during the uprising and asked the former president to tell the rioters to resign, but the president did not acted.
Herrera Beutler’s actual testimony has the potential to make Trump and his supporters much more damaging, and Democratic Party activists have expressed dismay that the accusers have stopped. But they weigh the damage Republicans will do against the political toll their own party’s agenda will have to endure in Congress through a lengthy trial.
President Biden is eager to move beyond the accusation so that Congress can focus on confirming its nominees and passing a major COVID-19 relief package. A longer trial could sustain that agenda.
House leaders debated until at least 3 a.m. Saturday morning whether to call witnesses, according to a Democrat familiar with the negotiations. They only notified their Senate counterparts of their plan about 5 minutes before the trial was to resume on Saturday morning. After the vote to call witnesses was successful, it became clear, according to the Democrat, that the drivers did not have a comprehensive plan for their next steps.
Shortly after the agreement between Beutler and the commenter was entered into, the House Managers began their closing arguments. They were followed by the president’s lawyers.
For much of the week, including the Saturday session, it was clear that senators wanted the trial to end quickly. And obligate the lawyers; neither party made full use of its allotted time. By 3:40 p.m., not six hours after the Senate was in session, the vote was complete.