- Del. Stacey Plaskett (D Virgin Islands) was a House Speaker in Trump’s second indictment.
- She told CNN that some Senate Republicans told her privately that they had “made a case” for conviction.
- But she said they were already planning to acquit Trump and did not want to “stand on the point” of being convicted.
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An executive director of the House says Republican senators told her privately that she made “the case” to convict former President Donald Trump, but they still voted to release him.
Del Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat from the Virgin Islands, tells CNN’s Chris Cuomo Monday about the interactions she had with unnamed Republican senators during Trump’s second indictment last week.
“I had senators, even after we presented it, who stopped me in the hallway, Republicans, who said we made the case, but still they are going to vote to acquit the president,” Plaskett said.
Plaskett said she tried to win these senators by saying they could vote to acquit Trump, but would not vote to qualify him for office in the future – a vote that would take place after conviction. requires only a simple majority.
—Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) 16 February 2021
“The answer was, ‘Well, I do not think you will reach 17, so I will never reach the second disqualification vote, and I do not want to stand alone on a limb,'” Plaskett recalled. referring to Democratic senators who need 17 Republicans to vote with them to convict Trump.
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Plaskett has also in recent days decided not to call witnesses during the trial.
“We do not need to call any witnesses at the end of the trial, because as all Americans believed at the time, the evidence was overwhelming,” Plaskett told NPR on Sunday.
She also told CNN in a separate Sunday interview: ‘I know people feel very anxious and believe that if we had, the senators would have done what we wanted, but listen, we did not need more witnesses, we need more senators needed with spines. “
Trump was acquitted in his second indictment on Saturday, with 57 votes in favor and 43 votes in favor. A two-thirds majority is needed to prosecute a president. Seven Republican senators voted in favor and joined all 50 Senate Democrats.
Among the Republicans who voted for conviction is North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, who is retiring after this term. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close confidant of Trump, said Burr’s voice in the trial paves the way for Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to elect him.
While Plaskett did not get the result she was looking for in Trump’s second indictment, she said it was necessary for the country, and it could work to prevent Trump from presenting him in the future.
“I believe that January 6 [Capitol riot] was a second kind of civil war and it was necessary for us to settle accounts and for the individuals who made war against our democracy to be brought to justice, they had to be held accountable, “Plaskett told CNN’s Cuomo yesterday.
“And that is what I saw as my duty and service to my country. I believe we were at the forefront of saving our union and our republic,” she added.
“I believe, even though we lost the case, that we showed who Donald Trump is, we showed the enemy who was among us, who was trying to lead us, what we used for his own greed and power, and that he did not would have the same power he had, would he ever try to run again. ‘