Senate Votes to Acquit Trump; Seven Republicans Vote to Convict

The Senate on Saturday voted 57-43 to acquit former President Donald Trump for “incitement of an insurrection” after the House last month passed a single article of impeachment against him for his role in encouraging his supporters to amass at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Seven GOP senators joined Democrats in voting to convict the former president: Senators 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. At least 17 Republican votes were needed to convict. Ahead of the vote, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had reportedly suggested to his Republican colleagues that voting to convict or acquit Trump would be a matter of conscience and would not need to align with senators’ earlier votes to dispute the constitutionality of the trial. While McConnell declined to whip votes either for or against impeachment, he ultimately voted to acquit on the grounds that the Senate lacked the authority to convict a private citizen. He did, however, condemn Trump in a speech on the Senate floor after the vote. “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shamefully shouting into the largest megaphone on earth,” McConnell said.“The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things,” he added...MORE