Senators Portman, Brown explain impeachment votes

The U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump on both of the articles of impeachment against him on votes largely along party lines.

Both of Ohio’s U.S. Senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, announced their decisions ahead of the Feb. 5 vote. Portman voted not guilty to both articles of impeachment and Brown voted guilty to both.

Portman explained his decision on the Senate floor Feb. 4.

“Since first seeing the transcript of the phone call between President Trump and President Zelenskiy four months ago, I’ve consistently said that the President asking Ukraine for an investigation of Joe Biden was inappropriate and wrong,” said Portman, who is co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. “I’ve also said since then that any actions taken by members of the administration or those outside

the administration to try to delay military assistance or a White House meeting pending an investigation by Ukraine were not appropriate, either. But

while I don’t condone this behavior, these actions do not rise to the level of removing President Trump from office and taking him off the ballot in a presidential election season that’s already well underway.”

Brown explained his decision on the Senate floor Feb. 5 ahead of the vote.

“Over the course of this trial we heard overwhelming evidence that President Trump did things Richard

Nixon never did – he extorted

a bribe from a foreign leader, to put his own presidential campaign above the American people he swore an oath to serve,”

Brown said. “If we acquit this president, it sets a clear, dangerous precedent – that you can abuse your office, and Congress will look the other way. One of our fundamental American values is that we have no kings, no nobility, no oligarchs in this country – no matter how

rich, no matter how powerful, everyone can and should be held accountable. This trial and this vote are about more than just President Trump.”

The U.S. Constitution requires a two-thirds guilty vote of Senate members present to remove the president from office.

Brown

Portman