McConnell: Trump practically, morally responsible
WASHINGTON – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell excoriated Donald Trump on Saturday for being “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol but said he voted to acquit him at the impeachment trial because he believes the Senate had no jurisdiction over a former president.
Washington’s most powerful Republican used his strongest language to date to denounce Trump minutes after the Senate voted 57-43 to convict Trump but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to find him guilty.
The Senate’s longest-serving GOP leader said Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on Congress were “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.” He even noted that although Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws.
“He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell said.
Seven Republicans joined the 50 Democrats and independents on that vote, creating a clear majority against Trump and a bipartisan denunciation of his actions in helping spark the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
McConnell had signaled last month that he was open to finding Trump guilty, an eye-opening signal of his alienation from the former president. His decision on how he would vote was unknown until he sent a private email to GOP senators Saturday morning saying, “While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction.”
He expanded on his rationale on the Senate floor after the roll-call vote but went even further, making clear his enmity toward Trump’s actions.
“There is no question, none, that
President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day,” he said.
Many had expected the Kentucky senator to vote to clear Trump of the charges based on McConnell’s history as a GOP loyalist who takes few major risks. But before Saturday, he had said little in public or private about his mindset.
McConnell jarred the political world just minutes after the Democratic-led House impeached Trump on Jan. 13, writing to his GOP colleagues that he had “not made a final decision” about how he would vote at the Senate trial.