TRUMP ACQUITTED
Senate’s 57-43 vote that former president incited insurrection falls short of two-thirds majority
“Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future. What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here in this moment, will be remembered.” Rep. Madeleine Dean D-Pa., one of the House prosecutors
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Saturday acquitted Donald Trump of inciting the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol, concluding a historic impeachment trial that exposed the fragility of America’s democratic traditions and left a divided nation to come to terms with the violence sparked by his defeated presidency.
Barely a month after the deadly Jan. 6 riot that stunned the world, the Senate convened for a rare weekend session to deliver its verdict, voting while armed National Guard troops stood at their posts outside the building.
The quick trial, the nation’s first of a former president, showed how perilously close the
invaders had come to destroying the nation’s deep tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power after Trump had refused to concede the election. Rallying outside the White House, he unleashed a mob of supporters to “fight like hell” for him at the Capitol just as Congress was to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. As hundreds stormed the building, some in tactical gear engaging in bloody combat with police, lawmakers fled for their lives. Five people died.
The verdict, on a vote of 57-43, is all but certain to influence not only the former president’s political future but that of the senators sworn to deliver impartial justice as jurors. Seven Republicans joined the 50 Democrats and independents to convict, but it was far from the two-thirds threshold required.
The outcome after the uprising leaves unresolved the nation’s wrenching divisions over Trump’s brand of politics that led to the most violent domestic attack on one of America’s three branches of government.
“Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., one of the House prosecutors, said in closing arguments.
“What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here in this moment, will be remembered.”
Trump, unrepentant, welcomed his second impeachment acquittal and said his movement “has only just begun.” He slammed the trial as “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”
Though he was acquitted, it was easily the largest number of senators to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty of an impeachment charge.
Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Even after voting to acquit, Republican leader Mitch McConnell condemned the former president as “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection. Trump could not be convicted because he was out of office,
McConnell contended.
The trial had been momentarily thrown into confusion when House impeachment managers asked the Senate to consider potential witnesses, a standoff Saturday that stalled the momentum toward a vote. Prolonged proceedings would be politically risky, particularly for Biden’s new presidency and his emerging legislative agenda. Coming amid the searing COVID-19 crisis, the Biden White House is trying to rush pandemic relief through Congress.
Biden has hardly weighed in on the proceedings and was spending the weekend with family at the presidential retreat of Camp David.
The nearly weeklong trial delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled for their own safety that day, acknowledge they are still digesting.
House prosecutors argued that Trump was the “inciter in chief ” stoking a monthslong campaign of violent rhetoric and false claims they called the “big lie” that inspired the mob. Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer.
Trump’s lawyers countered that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and called the impeachment a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from returning to office.
The senators, announcing their votes from their desks, were not only jurors but also witnesses. Only by watching the graphic videos – rioters calling out menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the January certification tally – did senators say they began to understand just how perilously close the country came to chaos.
Many senators kept their votes closely held until the final moments Saturday, particularly the Republicans representing states where the former president remains popular. Most of them ultimately voted to acquit, doubting whether Trump was fully responsible or if impeachment is the appropriate response.
“Just look at what Republicans have been forced to defend,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Look at what Republicans have chosen to forgive.”
In closing arguments, lead defense attorney Michael van der Veen fell back on the procedural argument that Republican senators have embraced in their own reasoning of the case that he said is a “phony impeachment show trial.”
“Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,” he said. “The act of incitement never happened.”
The House impeached Trump on the sole charge of incitement of insurrection one week after the riot, the most bipartisan vote in a presidential impeachment.
The delay Saturday came as senators voted to hear evidence about Trump’s actions during the riot.
Fresh stories overnight focused on Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who said in a statement late Friday that Trump rebuffed a plea from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the rioters.
Fifty-four senators voted to consider witnesses, including Collins, Murkowski, Sasse and Romney. Once they did, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina changed his vote to join them to make the vote 55-45.
But facing a prolonged trial, the situation was resolved when Herrera Beutler’s statement on the call was read aloud into the record for senators to consider as evidence. As part of the deal, Democrats dropped their planned deposition and the defense team abandoned a threat to call its own witnesses.
Impeachment trials are rare, senators having met as a court of impeachment over a president only four times in the nation’s history, for Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and now twice for Trump.
Unlike last year’s impeachment trial of Trump in the Ukraine affair, a complicated charge of corruption and obstruction over his attempts to have the foreign ally dig up dirt on thencampaign rival Biden, this one brought an emotional punch displayed in graphic videos of the assault.
At the same time, this year’s trial carried similar warnings from the prosecutors pleading with senators that Trump must be held accountable because he has shown repeatedly he has no bounds. Left unchecked, they said, he would further test the norms of civic behavior, even now that he is out of office still commanding loyal supporters.
“This trial in the final analysis is not about Donald Trump,” said lead prosecutor Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “This trial is about who we are.”