Schumer: Don’t elect Trump again
Senator laments acquittal of former president by Senate
After the U.S. Senate voted to acquit former President Donald J.
Trump, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer urged Americans to reject the twice-impeached leader at the ballot box if he runs for office again, as Trump has hinted he may have a future in public life.
Ina speech on the Senate floor Saturday afternoon, Schumer wondered aloud whether the nation could handle a repeat of the events leading to Trump’s trial after the Senate failed to convict him.
“By not recognizing the heinous crime that Donald Trump committed against the Constitution, Republican senators have not only risked but potentially invited the same danger that was just visited upon us,” Schumer declared. “If Donald Trump ever stands for public office again and after everything we have seen this week, I hope, I pray, and I believe he will meet the unambiguous rejection by the American people.”
After his acquittal, Trump called the trial “another phase in the greatest witch hunt in American history.”
“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,” he said. “We have so much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant, and limitless American future.”
New York’s senators, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Schumer, joined their fellow Democrats and seven Republicans who voted in favor of convicting Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I’m gutted that the truth held no weight with too many of my Republican colleagues,” Gillibrand said. “We owed it to the American people and to the murdered and wounded Capitol Police officers to hold President Trump accountable,” she said in a statement. “At the very least, we have left an irrefutable record of President Trump’s shameful actions.”
The House impeachment managers presented their closing arguments Saturday after deciding not to call any witnesses to testify. They argued Trump pushed a lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, incited his supporters to attack the Capitol to stop its certification and failed to intervene to stop the mobbing of the building, forcing lawmakers into lock-down. Five people died during and in the wake of the melee.
In their closing, Trump’s defense team argued that Trump’s speech was protected by the First Amendment and suggested his words did not meet the legal standard of incitement. They said he was innocent of wrongdoing.
The trial marked the third impeachment that Schumer has participated in; he is one of only 12 sitting senators to be part of three impeachments. In addition to Trump’s two impeachment trials, Schumer voted against impeaching former President Bill Clinton in 1998 and then was elected to the Senate and voted to acquit Clinton.
Both Schumer and Gillibrand also voted to convict Trump in 2020 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice, after he encouraged the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation into now-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
While Trump’s historic trial — the first for a president who has left office and the first time a president has faced a second impeachment trial — is over, investigations into the events of Jan. 6 and leading up to it will continue.
Democrats support forming a non-partisan commission, styled after the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks, to probe the Jan. 6 insurrection.