Nearly all GOP senators vote against impeachment trial for Trump, signaling likely acquittal - The Washington Post

All but five Republican senators backed former president Donald Trump on Tuesday in a key test vote ahead of his impeachment trial, signaling that the proceedings are likely to end with Trump’s acquittal on the charge that he incited the Jan.

The vote also demonstrated the continued sway Trump holds over GOP officeholders, even after his exit from the White House under a historic cloud caused by his refusal to concede the November election and his unprecedented efforts to challenge the result.

Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioning the constitutional basis for the impeachment and removal of a former president.

Notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who previously said Trump had “provoked” the Capitol mob — voted to back Paul and Trump, who has reached out to senators directly and through intermediaries to marshal support for his defense.

After the vote, Paul declared that “the impeachment trial is dead on arrival.”.

Graham (R-S.C.), who has been advising Trump on his defense, said Tuesday that he considered 45 votes to be “a floor, not a ceiling” for an acquittal vote.

A few senators who voted with Paul disputed that Tuesday’s vote was a foolproof indication of the trial’s outcome.

“I think it’s pretty obvious from the vote today that it is extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted,” she said.

Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he hoped that Tuesday’s vote would prompt Democrats to reassess whether it is worth having a trial.

Democrats and many legal scholars have balked at the argument that a former president — or any former official — cannot be convicted in an impeachment trial.

“It makes no sense whatsoever that a president, or any official, could commit a heinous crime against our country and then defeat Congress’s impeachment powers by simply resigning, so as to avoid accountability and a vote to disqualify them from future office.”.

Schumer and others have cited the precedent set in 1876, when Secretary of War William Belknap resigned moments before the House was set to vote on his impeachment on corruption charges.

John Thune (R-S.D.), the minority whip, said Tuesday’s vote indicated that many Republicans consider the trial to be on “a very shaky foundation” but have not necessarily ruled out voting to convict.

The former president’s aides also have started putting GOP senators on notice about the impending trial vote, asserting that Trump will continue to be in a force within the Republican Party.

While Leahy pledged Monday to act fairly in the role, the image of a Democrat presiding over the trial of a GOP former president led several Republicans to cry foul.

“Brazenly appointing a pro-impeachment Democrat to preside over the trial is not fair or impartial and hardly encourages any kind of unity in our country,” Paul said Tuesday.

A few Republicans, however, said they believed that the trial of a former president is constitutional.

Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), said the vote Tuesday suggested that House impeachment managers needed to make an even more detailed case against Trump — calling witnesses and presenting evidence attesting to the depravity of his behavior leading up to and during the events of Jan.

Blumenthal said he believed that the trial would rekindle the anger many Republicans felt in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol assault

Schumer on Tuesday said Trump’s behavior — which included spreading baseless theories about the November election being stolen, pressuring state officials to change vote tallies, encouraging supporters to rally in Washington as Congress certified the electoral college vote on Jan