In a big triumph, Trump acquitted in Senate trial; says was an ‘ordeal’
■ Republican senator breaks ranks to vote against Prez
Washington, Feb. 6: President Donald Trump launched a post-impeachment victory lap Thursday, brandishing a newspaper with the giant headline “ACQUITTAL” on television, ahead of a White House address on his “terrible ordeal.”
Cleared in the Senate of abusing his office and obstructing Congress, Trump now hopes to seize the momentum to push his reelection campaign against a divided Democratic party.
He began early with an appearance at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a multi-faith gathering for Washington power brokers, business leaders and, especially, conservative evangelicals. The theme of the breakfast was “love your enemy.”
But from the moment he entered to the strains of “Hail to the Chief,” Trump
made his feelings clear by holding up a copy of USA Today with the banner headline reporting his victory — with a broad grin on his face.
Then, in a tired, raspy voice, Trump indicated he was in no mood for forgiveness, saying he’d been “put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people.”
“They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation,” he said. Mr Trump noted that he would be giving a statement at the White House later and said he’d discuss his determination that what happened during the impeachment cannot be allowed to “go on.”
He also appeared to rip into Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who as speaker of the House led his impeachment, and Mitt Romney, the lone Republican senator to support the charges.
“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” he said in a clear reference to Romney, a devout Mormon who cited his faith as a reason for breaking ranks with Mr Trump.
“Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when they know that’s not so,” he added in a jab at Pelosi, who has often spoken of praying for Mr Trump, and who was seated an arm’s length away.
■
Washington, Feb. 6: The Republican-controlled Senate has acquitted Donald Trump in his highprofile impeachment trial, giving the US President a major political victory in an election year but not before bitterly dividing the country and costing millions of dollars to the tax payers.
The Senate voted on Wednesday 52-48 to acquit Trump of abuse of power and 53-47 to absolve him of obstruction of Congress, the two charges he faced.
The vote along party lines foiled the Democratic Party’s determined bid to overthrow Trump from the White House ahead of the November 3 presidential election.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the articles of impeachment on December 18 after charging Trump with pressuring Ukraine to smear former US vice president Joe Biden, a potential Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential election, using nearly $400 million in military aid as leverage.
Though Trump, 73, has been acquitted, he will become the first impeached president to seek reelection.
A two-thirds majority vote was needed to remove Trump, which was always going to be a long shot in a 100-member Senate controlled by his Republican Party with 53 seats.
“For now, the impeachment of Mr Trump appears to have evenly divided the nation,” The New York Times reported.
“The outcome represented a political triumph for the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell...,” The Washington Post noted.
“The President is pleased to put this latest chapter of shameful behaviour by the Democrats in the past, and looks forward to continuing his work on behalf of the American people in 2020 and beyond,” a much-relieved White House said soon after Trump’s acquittal.
Trump announced on Twitter that he will make a public statement on Thursday from the White House “to discuss our Country's VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!”
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham slammed the Opposition Democrats.
“Today, the sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of President Donald J. Trump. As we have said all along, he is not guilty,” she said.
“The Senate voted to reject the baseless articles of impeachment, and only the President’s political opponents – all Democrats, and one failed Republican presidential candidate – voted for the manufactured impeachment articles,” Grisham said.
Trump 2020 campaign
manager Brad Parscale said, “The do-nothing Democrats know they can’t beat him, so they had to impeach him. This terrible ordeal was always a campaign tactic to invalidate the 2016 votes of 63 million Americans.”
Democratic Party accused the Republican-dominated Senate of ignoring the facts, “the will of the American people and their duty to the Constitution”.
“Today, the President and Senate Republicans have normalised lawlessness and rejected the system of checks and balances of our Constitution,” said Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
“There can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence,” she said, a day after the powerful Democrat tore her copy of Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress.
I will be making a public statement tomorrow at 12:00 pm from the @WhiteHouse to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax. I have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people. They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation. — DONALD TRUMP US President Sadly, because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution, the President remains an ongoing threat to American democracy, with his insistence that he is above the law and that he can corrupt the elections if he wants to. — NANCY PELOSI House Speaker
When it was over, the impeachment of Trump produced 135 days of partisan rancour, 17 witness accounts, more than 28,000 pages of documents and testimony, and one big loose end. Today, the sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of President Donald J. Trump. — WHITE HOUSE, in a statement