- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emailed senators to let them know if they should convict President Donald Trump during the upcoming indictment, a “vote of conscience”, North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer told Insider said in an exclusive interview.
- Cramer said he does not want Trump to be accused. But he is also not sure he wants the president to serve in the federal office again after endangering democracy, he said.
- ” A conviction of Trump may mean he does not want to run again, but that does not mean he gives up without fighting, ” Cramer told Insider. “I do not know that accusation sends a message to our base.”
- Cramer and others buzz about a judicial review of retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig and say the Senate cannot hold an indictment once Trump leaves office.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tells his Republican colleagues that they have the freedom to vote, but whatever they want, during the upcoming indictment for Donald Trump after the crippled president incited a deadly riot on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.
“His message to me was that it would clearly be a vote of conscience,” Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican in North Dakota, told Insider. “He has always been respectful of members.”
The Senate could begin the presidential hearing on Wednesday, the same day as President Joe Biden’s election. Under Senate rules, the upper chamber must prioritize the Trump trial as soon as the House officially delivers its article of indictment accusing Trump of inciting rioters who stormed the Capitol. So far that has not happened, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to say on Friday when the Democrats will plan the formal handover.
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In anticipation of the trial, GOP sources close to McConnell and the White House said earlier this week that the Republican from Kentucky would possibly vote to condemn Trump as a way to deter him from ever serving in the federal office again. McConnell later told other senators that he had not decided and wanted to listen to the legal arguments before coming to any conclusions.
Cramer, a former Republican from the House and early supporter of Trump in 2016, who detained him during his one tenure, said he did not want to vote to convict Trump. But he said he might be able to vote to stop Trump from serving again after last week’s attack.
Such a vote to end Trump’s federal government career permanently requires only a simple majority, but that would only happen if two-thirds of the Senate voted to convict Trump. It has never occurred to a president in more than 230 years of American history.
On January 6, a riot broke out in the Senate presidency.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
GOP senator calls riot ‘assault’ on republic
The domestic attack on the Capitol caused lawmakers from both parties to scramble before Biden’s inauguration, where about 20,000 national army camps set up camp in and around the country’s seat of legislative power.
“This is the representative republic at work, and it was such an assault – it was an assault on the very day’s job,” Cramer said in an interview Thursday.
But the senator acknowledged that Republicans like him were also concerned about the setback of Trump and his supporters as the indictment approached. Some GOP lawmakers have faced death threats from Trump supporters, and they have bought weapons for protection.
Now they are considering whether Trump would be condemned, chastised or empowered him.
“A conviction of Trump may mean he does not want to run again, but that does not mean he will give up without a fight,” Cramer said. “All my Republican pro-Trump friends want to take my head off because they did not blow up the Constitution.”
The House voted 232-197 on Wednesday to accuse Trump of his role in inciting rioters to storm the Capitol, making him the only president charged twice. All 222 House Democrats and ten Republicans supported the accusation.
Trump spokesmen did not immediately return a request for comment. A McConnell spokesman declined to comment.
U.S. Attorney General John Roberts presided over President Donald Trump’s first indictment in early 2020. He’s back for the next one.
Senate television via AP
Counting votes in the Senate
Senate Republicans have also debated behind the scenes whether an indictment will even be technically allowed, as Trump will no longer hold office after noon on January 20.
The Michael Luttig, a former federal judge of appeals court who wrote in The Washington Post this week that the Senate cannot hear an official once they leave office, is to make the rounds between GOP offices.
“The trial of the Senate would be unconstitutional,” Luttig said.
Luttig’s position does not go unchallenged. Constitutional expert Jeffrey Rosen said in a Politico Playbook newsletter on Friday that the discretion to hold the trial lies solely with the Senate.
It is unclear how many Republicans of the Senate will eventually join the Democrats, should the Trump trial – which will have U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts in charge – get a final vote on conviction or acquittal. Even the chamber’s most moderate members, such as Alaska’s Republican senator Lisa Murkowski, refuse to say how they will vote.
Cramer said he did not think there were 17 GOP senators who would act with all 50 Democrats to convict Trump.
If the scenario were to play out, Trump’s trial would end with the former president’s acquittal.
McConnell’s strategy of telling Republicans like Cramer that they have the freedom to condemn Trump has sparked speculation about what the GOP Senate leader is doing. Some sources said they thought he was delivering a warning shot to the crippled president that Republicans were done with him in politics.
“They’re free, like a bird,” a GOP source familiar with McConnell’s thinking told Insider. “They don’t want him to run again. That’s what McConnell is trying to figure out how to do.”