■ All but five Senate Republicans backed an effort to dismiss Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Attempt backed by 45 Republicans rejected
WASHINGTON — All but five Senate Republicans voted in favor of an effort to dismiss Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial on Tuesday, making clear a conviction of the former president for “incitement of insurrection” after the deadly Capitol siege on Jan. 6 is unlikely.
“I think this was indicative of where a lot of people’s heads are,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said after the vote.
Late Tuesday, the presiding officer at the trial, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., was taken to a hospital for observation after not feeling well at his office, spokesman David Carle said in a statement.
Later Tuesday, Carle said Leahy had been sent home “after a thorough examination” and was looking forward to getting back to work.
Leahy presided over the trial’s first procedural vote, a 55-45 tally that saw the Senate set aside an objection from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul that would have declared the impeachment proceedings unconstitutional and dismissed the trial.
The vote means the trial on Trump’s impeachment will begin as scheduled the week of Feb. 8. The House impeached him Jan. 13, just a week after the deadly insurrection in which five people died.
Conviction would require the support of all Democrats and 17 Republicans, or two-thirds of the Senate — far from the five Republicans who voted with Democrats on Tuesday to allow the trial to proceed. They were Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch Mcconnell, who has said Trump “provoked” the riots and indicated he is open to conviction, voted with Paul to move toward dismissing the trial.