Republicans edge away from impeachment
AGROWING number of Republican senators say they are opposed to impeachment proceedings, dimming the chances that former United States president Donald Trump will be convicted.
Democrats from the House of Representatives were due to carry the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol late yesterday evening in a rare and ceremonial walk to the Senate by the prosecutors who will argue their case.
The Democrats are hoping that strong Republican denunciations of Mr Trump after the January 6 riot at the Capitol, in Washington DC, will translate into a conviction and a separate vote to bar Mr Trump from holding office again.
However, Republican passions appear to have cooled since the insurrection. Now that Mr Trump’s presidency is over, Republican senators who will serve as jurors in the trial are rallying to his legal defence, as they did during his first impeachment trial last year.
Senator Marco Rubio said: “I think the trial is stupid, I think it’s counterproductive. The first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I’ll do it.”
Mr Trump is the first former president to face an impeachment trial, and it will test his grip on the Republican Party as well as the legacy of his tenure, which came to a close as a mob of loyal supporters heeded his rally cry by storming the Capitol and trying to overturn President Joe Biden’s election.
The proceedings will also force Democrats, who have a full sweep of party control of the White House and Congress, to balance their promise to hold the former president accountable while also rushing to deliver on Mr Biden’s priorities.
Arguments in the Senate trial will begin during the week of February 8. Leaders in both parties agreed to the short delay to give Mr Trump’s team and House prosecutors time to prepare and the Senate the chance to confirm some of Mr Biden’s cabinet nominees.
Democrats say the extra days will allow for more evidence to come out about the rioting by Mr Trump’s supporters, while Republicans hope to craft a unified defence for Mr Trump.
Democratic senator Chris Coons said on Sunday that he hopes that evolving clarity on the details of what happened on January 6 “will make it clearer to my colleagues and the
American people that we need some accountability”.
Mr Coons questioned how his colleagues who were in the Capitol that day could see the insurrection as anything other than a “stunning violation” of tradition of peaceful transfers of power. “It is a critical moment in American history and we have to look at it and look at it hard,” he said.
An early vote to dismiss the trial probably would not succeed, given that Democrats now control the Senate. Still, the mounting Republican opposition indicates that many senators would eventually vote to acquit Mr Trump. Democrats would need the support of 17 Republicans – a high bar – to convict him.
The House impeached Mr Trump on January 13, exactly one week after the siege – the first invasion of the Capitol since the War of 1812.