Not guilty: Trump bounces back
US president cleared of two articles of impeachment as he tries to draw a line under bitter trial with Union address
Donald Trump was acquitted of both articles of impeachment by the US Senate last night. Mr Trump’s poll ratings are at their highest since he took office, as he tries to become the first impeached president to be re-elected later this year
DONALD TRUMP was acquitted over impeachment by the US Senate last night, ending a historic and turbulent four-month ordeal and freeing him to seek re-election in November.
Senators voted by 52 to 48 to reject the abuse of power article of impeachment and by 53 to 47 to defeat the obstruction of Congress article, meaning he remains in the White House.
Mitt Romney, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee, was the only member to vote against party lines, saying “guilty” to the charge of abuse of power, but “not guilty” to obstruction of Congress.
In an emotional speech on the Senate floor, he argued that Mr Trump’s actions in Ukraine scandal were so “appalling” and “grievously wrong” that he had to go. Other Republicans disagreed.
Moments after acquittal, Mr Trump tweeted a video joking about remaining in office for ever, and said he would give a full response to the “impeachment hoax” today.
The White House’s press secretary released a statement saying the decision amounted to “full vindication and exoneration” for the president.
Removal had always looked unlikely, with 67 of the 100 senators needed to vote that way for it to happen. There are just 47 Democratic and independent senators.
“The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” Mr Romney said in a speech heavy with history delivered moments before the 4pm vote. “With my vote, I will tell my children, their children, that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me.”
The decision, which made him the first senator in modern times to vote for the removal of a president from their own party, triggered an immediate and fierce backlash from Trump allies.
Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, called for Mr Romney to be kicked out of the Republican group in the Senate, repeatedly tweeting the hashtag “Expelmitt”
One Democratic senator urged Republican leaders to protect Mr Romney, fearing they would start “feeding
alive to the banshees of the Rightwing on social media”.
The president will attempt to portray the decision as an exoneration. It also carries a political risk for the opposing party, with scores of Democrats, who managed to win seats in the 2018 midterms in Trump-supporting areas by talking about policy rather than the president, facing tough re-elections in November. It could put their House majority in doubt.
The pace of Mr Trump’s impeachment, from the actions which triggered the Democratic move to his Senate trial, was remarkably rapid, taking place over little more than six months. Mr Trump’s telephone call to the Ukrainian president when he urged an investigation into his political rival Joe Biden, the moment most central to the impeachment drive, took place on July 25. The Senate vote was on Feb 5.
In the end, a string of Republican senators had concluded, after months of denials from the White House, that the facts of the case against Mr Trump as put forward by the Democrats had been established.
The president did try to pressure Ukraine into launching an investigation that would help him in the 2020 election, some concluded, and his decision to hold back almost $400million (£307million) was at least in part connected.
Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator for Alaska, said Mr Trump’s behaviour had been “shameful”. Susan Collins of Maine called it “wrong”.
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said it was “not ‘perfect’” – as the president has claimed – but “inappropriate”.
But they also argued the actions did not warrant his removal. Ms Collins said: “I do not believe that the House has met its burden of showing that the president’s conduct, however flawed, warrants the extreme step of immediate removal from office.”
The Democrats failed last week to get enough votes to call new witnesses, such as former national security adviser John Bolton, something they said meant there would always be an “asterisk” next to Mr Trump’s acquittal.
Adam Schiff, the Democratic congressman leading the case against Mr Trump in the Senate trial, had issued a final plea to senators this week: “You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is … Now, do impartial justice and convict him.”
The president began drawing a line under the ordeal on Tuesday evening when he used his State of the Union address to argue for his re-election.
Never mentioning the word “impeachment”, Mr Trump used his 78-minute address to tout what he dubbed the “great American comeback” since he took office in January 2017. “Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging, and our country is thriving and highly respected again,” Mr Trump said.
“America’s enemies are on the run, America’s fortunes are on the rise, and America’s future is blazing bright.” Yet it
‘With my vote I will tell my children that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it’ ‘America’s enemies are on the run, America’s fortunes are on the rise, and America’s future is blazing bright’
was the way his simmering feud with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker who launched impeachment, flared up in a pair of public snubs that made the headlines. Mr Trump declined to shake Mrs Pelosi’s outstretched hand at the start of the speech, prompting her to raise her arm in surprise.
At the end of the address Mrs Pelosi got her revenge, picking up sheets of the president’s speech and tearing them in two as he stood and took in the applause. The move, caught on cameras with Mrs Pelosi sitting just behind Mr Trump, was soon clipped up and being circulated on social media and replayed by cable news.
Mrs Pelosi, who was later seen holding the ripped pieces aloft, justified the gesture by saying the speech had been a “manifesto of mistruth”. Republicans were left infuriated, with Mr Trump sharing tweets calling it a “tantrum” and “uncouth”. There were other unexpected moments, with Mr Trump revealing that Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader who America sees as the legitimate president, was attending the speech.
Mr Trump had also invited Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host and bogeyman of the Left who had recently been diagnosed with cancer.
The president announced that he was giving Mr Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honour. Melania Trump draped the medal around Mr Limbaugh’s neck in a ceremony in the House of Representatives.