Brown: GOP has ‘visceral fear’ of Trump
The verdict in the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump may be predestined due to Senate Republicans’ fear of Trump and his base, but Americans still need to see his betrayal of his office and oath, says U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-ohio.
“I think the country needs to see every part of what happened. More information is coming out, more evidence has been accrued,” Brown said.
“It’s pretty clear that Republicans aren’t, that the radical right, is not going to allow their senators to do what is clearly the right thing,” Brown said in an
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH online news conference with Ohio reporters late Wednesday morning.
Ohio’s senior senator said Trump deserves to be convicted for inciting violence against the American government and democracy in dispatching a mob to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to commit a deadly insurrection.
He is not counting on the 17 Republican votes needed to join the 50 Democrats in convicting Trump as the second day of his Senate trial resumed Wednesday afternoon.
“I hope enough Republicans will shed their fear of Donald Trump. It’s clear there’s a visceral fear of Donald Trump. I know what Republicans say privately, I know they are concerned. Some of them were terrified when the president made that speech and saw what was happening” at the Capitol, Brown said.
“I wish Republican members would show some spine and vote what they know and see. We’ll see what they do at the end of the week,” he said.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-ohio, voted Tuesday to find Trump’s impeachment trial unconstitutional as only six Republicans joined Brown and the other Democrats to uphold the trial.
Brown said history will not kindly treat those who fail to convict Trump, talking of those who “thought more about their political futures and their careers and themselves than about democracy and about the country ... why did they lack courage?”
The senator said the chamber and its Democrats meanwhile continue to work to usher President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue and assistance package into law and are trying to work with minority Republicans.
“The public doesn’t really care if their $1,400 check is bipartisan,” Brown said. “We can’t wait for (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch Mcconnell and the radical right to buy into something.” rludlow@dispatch.com @Randyludlow