Baldwin blames GOP’s votes on Trump intimidation; Johnson says trial reopened old wounds.
Wisconsin’s U.S. senators divided their votes Saturday in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. And in neither case was their vote ever in much question.
Democrat Tammy Baldwin voted guilty, as did every Democrat in the Senate.
Republican Ron Johnson voted not guilty, as did all but seven GOP senators.
“It’s just hard for me to understand how so many Republicans could vote no, except for the fact that I think too many of the Republican senators who were both witnesses and jurors to this matter are intimidated by Trump and, therefore, care more about Trump than the truth,” Baldwin said in an interview after the vote.
Johnson said on Twitter after the vote:
“The Democrats’ vindictive and divisive political impeachment is over. While there are still many questions that remain unanswered, I do know neither the Capitol (breach) nor this trial should have ever occurred. Hopefully, true healing can now begin.”
In comments before the vote, Johnson called the impeachment effort pointless and unconstitutional, at one point suggesting it was a “diversion operation” by Democrats to turn attention away from security failures at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“We never should have had this impeachment trial,” Johnson told reporters Saturday. “It’s just like opening up a wound and just rubbing salt in it.”
The seven Republicans who voted to convict were 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.
In addition, some Senate Republicans who voted to acquit Trump nevertheless issued statements after the vote decrying the former president’s conduct.
The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, voted against conviction, arguing that a former president should not be subject to such a step. But he delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump after the vote, accusing him of “unconscionable behavior” and “disgraceful dereliction of duty,” saying, “There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
Overall, 57 senators voted “guilty” and 43 “not guilty,” resulting in Trump’s acquittal, because 67 votes were needed to convict. The seven GOP votes to convict were more than most observers expected, and easily the most defections ever from a president’s party in an impeachment trial.
Baldwin said the House impeachment managers showed that Trump “incited a violent insurrection to upset the will of the people of this country and steal the election based on a big lie. And secondly, once the foreseeable violence occurred, he did nothing to stop it despite pleas of help.”
In a recent interview with Fox News host Maria Bartilomo, Johnson suggested House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was at fault for inadequate security at the Capitol Jan. 6.
Shortly after Trump’s attorneys made their initial presentation Friday, Johnson declared that the “President’s lawyers blew the House Manager’s case out of the water. Legally eviscerated them.”
After the Senate voted Saturday morning to open the door to witnesses (before deciding later not to call any), Johnson was seen by journalists engaged in a heated discussion on the Senate floor with GOP colleague Romney. Romney had voted in favor of witnesses, Johnson against.
Johnson told reporters it was a private conversation, but said he was not upset at Romney but “upset at the vote,” which threatened to extend the trial.
When Romney was asked later what Johnson said to him, he joked, “we were arguing about boxers versus briefs.”
During Friday’s question and answer session at the trial, Johnson submitted a question for both sides that was read aloud:
“The House managers assert that the Jan. 6 attack was predictable and it was foreseeable. If so, why did it appear that law enforcement at the Capitol were caught off guard and unable to prevent the breach? Why did the House sergeant-at-arms reportedly turn down a request to activate the National Guard, stating that he was not comfortable with the optics?”
Trump’s lawyers welcomed the question, since they had argued that the president could not have incited the riot if it was predictable to begin with, and have sought to shift attention to security failures at the Capitol.
“Holy cow, that is a really good question,” said Trump attorney Michael van der Veen. “We do know that there was, I think, a certain level of foreseeability.”
House impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett said, “The defense counsel wants to blame everyone else, except the person who was most responsible for what happened on January 6 and that’s ... Donald Trump, and he is the person who could foresee this the most.”