Donald Trump’s second indictment came to a close on Saturday with 57 senators convicted, and the shortfall of the two-thirds margin was to convict him of the charge of ‘incitement to revolt’ in connection with the riot on January 6 in the USA. Capitol which resulted in five deaths. Seven GOP senators break out with their party – agreeing with all 48 Democrats and both independents in the body.
After the 57-43 vote, the Republicans who defied Trump explained their decision.
Richard Burr, North Carolina
“The facts are clear,” Burr said in a statement after the vote. “The president promoted unfounded conspiracy theories to question the integrity of a free and fair election because he did not like the results. When Congress convened to confirm the election results, the president instructed his supporters to go to the Capitol to disrupt the legal proceedings required by the Constitution. When the crowd became violent, the president used his office to first inflame the situation instead of immediately putting an end to the assault. ”
Burr originally voted that the trial was unconstitutional, but said in his statement that “the Senate is a precedent-setting institution, and since the majority of the Senate voted to proceed with this trial, the question is after constitutional precedent. “
He has already announced that he will not stand for re-election in 2022.
Bill Cassidy, Louisiana
Cassidy said succinctly video statement Saturday that he voted to convict Trump “because he is guilty.”
“Our Constitution and our country are more important than any person,” he said.
Susan Collins, Maine
Earlier this week, Collins, who won the re-election in November, said she was “stunned” by the actions of Trump lawyer Bruce Castor.
“He does not seem to have argued at all, which was an unusual approach,” she said.
After acquitting Trump during the first indictment last year, Collins said she believes “the president has learned from this case. The president has been charged. This is a pretty big lesson. ‘
On Saturday, Collins voted to convict and offered a different assessment of the former president.
“Instead of avoiding a dangerous situation, President Trump has created one. “And rather than defending the constitutional transfer of power, he incited an uprising with the aim of preventing that transfer of power from taking place,” she said.
Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
Murkowski, who is up for re-election in 2022, told Politico after the vote on Saturday that she was not worried about facing political consequences for her conviction.
‘If I can not say what I should stand for our president, then why should I ask Alaskans to stand with me? “It has been on many levels as a result, but I can not allow the importance of my vote to weaken or I feel it is useful for my political ambitions,” she said.
On Friday, Murkowski and Collins posed a key question to Trump’s advice: Exactly when did Trump learn of the Capitol intrusion, and what specific steps did he take to end the riot? Trump’s council apparently avoids the question and tells senators that there has been ‘no investigation into it’.
Asked about the answer to her question, Murkowski said it ‘does not respond much’.
Lisa Murkowski on how the Trump team answered her question with Collins. “I just wanted to wait a moment that doesn’t respond very well.” They asked what Trump was doing when he heard about the riot.
– Manu Raju (@mkraju) 13 February 2021
The senator said on Wednesday that the management of the House of Representatives “made a very strong case” and that the evidence presented was “fairly damning”, NBC reported.
Mitt Romney, Utah
Romney was the only Republican who voted to convict Trump after his first indictment last year. After the vote on Saturday, the senator in a statement that he believed Trump was guilty of inciting the insurgency and added that the former president “tried to spoil the election by pressuring the Secretary of State to falsify the election results in his state.”
“President Trump has also violated his oath of office by not protecting the Capitol, the Vice President and others in the Capitol. “Each of these conclusions forces me to support conviction,” he said in a statement.
Ben Sasse, Nebraska
Sasse, one of the few GOP senators who was not directly opposed to the indictment, said in a statement on Saturday that the former president had repeated lies about the election, such as the false claim that he had won by a landslide victory, and use the lies. to summon his supporters to the Capitol on 6 January.
“Those lies had consequences,” the statement said: “endangering the life of the Vice President and bringing us dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis.”
Sasse’s support for the former president faded long before the November election, and the Omaha World Herald reported that he was distorted by the Republicans of Nebraska, distrustful due to the lack of support for Trump.
Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania
In a statement Toomey, released after his vote, said: ‘President Trump has invited thousands of people to Washington, DC and ignited their passion by refuting repeated allegations of widespread fraud. He urged the mob to march to the Capitol with the aim of preventing Congress and the vice president from formally confirming the outcome of the presidential election. All this to hold the power, even though they have legally lost. ”
“I was one of the 74 million Americans who voted for President Trump, in part because of the many accomplishments of his government,” Toomey continued. “Unfortunately, his behavior after the election betrayed the trust that millions of us placed in him. His betrayal of the Constitution and his oath of office required conviction. ”
Toomey has already announced that he will not run again in 2022.
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