Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made former President Trump excited in a speech on the Senate floor on Saturday shortly after McConnell voted for acquittal in the former president’s second indictment. In a first-half speech recalling the arguments made by executives of indictments, McConnell said the former president was “practically and morally responsible” for the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
But McConnell argued that he believed it was unconstitutional to convict a president who was no longer in office.
“It was an intensive conspiracy of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to overthrow the decision of the electorate or to flare up our institutions along the way,” McConnell said.
McConnell was unequivocal about the responsibility of Mr. Trump. “There is no doubt that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump watched the events on television. “A crowd attacked the Capitol in his name,” he said. “These criminals carried his banners, hung his flags and shouted their loyalty to him.”
The Senate on Saturday voted 57-43 to acquit the former president on charges of inciting insurgency. Seven Republicans teamed up with Democrats to convict former president: Senators Richard 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 Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
McConnell said that the people who stormed the Capitol believe that according to the wishes and instructions of Mr. Trump is acting. “The belief,” McConnell said, “was a predictable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole that kept defeating the defeated president in the largest megaphone on planet earth.”
McConnell described the violence on Jan. 6, saying Americans beat and bled their own police, stormed the Senate floor and built a gallows and rumbled over the assassination of the vice president. “They did it,” McConnell said, “because they were led wildly by the most powerful man on earth, because he was angry that he had lost an election.”
But McConnell argued that the former president “is constitutionally unfit for conviction” because he is no longer in office – even though the Senate voted 56-44 earlier this week that it was constitutionally possible to convict a former official to be found.
McConnell said: “I believe the Senate seemed to not seize the power that the Constitution does not give us.”
He said he respects his colleagues who came to the conclusion about the constitutionality of conviction. “This is undoubtedly a narrow question,” he said.
“If President Trump were still in office,” he said, “I would have carefully considered whether the Home Rulers have proved their specific complaint.”
McConnell prevented the Senate from holding the indictment before Mr. Trump has left office. He refused to consent to an emergency Senate session to conduct the trial, arguing that there was not enough time to conduct it fairly before President Biden took office. Mr. Biden was inaugurated seven days after the House voted to accuse Trump.
The trial, which began on February 9, lasted only five days.
Although Trump has been acquitted of inciting riots in the Senate trial, he could still face criminal charges. A Prosecutor opened in Georgia a criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the presidential election in the state. And, separate, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is also overseeing an investigation into Mr. Trump for possible crimes as wide as fraud and tax evasion.