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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowSenate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Tuesday against moving forward with Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, making clear a conviction of the former president for “incitement of insurrection” is unlikely.
In a 55-45 procedural vote, the Senate set aside an objection from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul that would have declared the impeachment proceedings unconstitutional. That means the trial on Trump’s impeachment, the first ever of a former president, will begin as scheduled the week of Feb. 8. The House impeached him two weeks ago for inciting deadly riots in the Capitol on Jan. 6 when he told his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat.
Yet the support of 45 Republicans for declaring the trial invalid indicates that there are long odds for Trump’s conviction, which would require the support of all Democrats and 17 Republicans, or two-thirds of the Senate. While most Republicans criticized Trump shortly after the attack, many of them have rushed to defend him in the trial, showing the former president’s enduring sway over the GOP.
“If more than 34 Republicans vote against the constitutionality of the proceeding, the whole thing’s dead on arrival,” Paul said shortly before the vote.” Paul said Democrats “probably should rest their case and present no case at all.”
The senators took oaths Tuesday to ensure “impartial justice” as jurors in the trial, proceedings that will test Republican loyalty to the former president for the first time after the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.
Many Republican senators, including Paul, have challenged the legitimacy of the trial and questioned whether Trump’s repeated demands to overturn Joe Biden’s election really constitute “incitement of insurrection.”
So what seemed for some Democrats like an open-and-shut case that played out for the world on live television is running into a Republican Party that feels very different. Not only are there legal concerns, but senators are wary of crossing the former president and his legions of followers. Security remains tight at the Capitol.
On Monday, the nine House Democrats prosecuting the case against Trump carried the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol in a solemn and ceremonial march along the same halls the rioters ransacked three weeks ago.
The lead House prosecutor, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, stood before the Senate to describe the violent events of Jan. 6 — five people died — and read the House resolution charging “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Republicans came to Trump’s legal defense.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked if Congress starts holding impeachment trials of former officials, what’s next: “Could we go back and try President Obama?”
Besides, he suggested, Trump has already been held to account. “One way in our system you get punished is losing an election.”
For Democrats the tone, tenor and length of the trial so early in Biden’s presidency poses its own challenge, forcing them to strike a balance between their vow to hold Trump accountable and their eagerness to deliver on the new administration’s priorities following their sweep of control of the House, Senate and White House.
Chief Justice John Roberts is not presiding at the trial, as he did during Trump’s first impeachment, potentially affecting the gravitas of the proceedings. The shift is said to be in keeping with protocol because Trump is no longer in office.
Instead, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., who serves in the largely ceremonial role of Senate president pro tempore, was sworn in on Tuesday.
Leaders in both parties agreed to a short delay in the proceedings, which serves their political and practical interests, even as National Guard troops remain at the Capitol because of security threats to lawmakers ahead of the trial.
The start date gives Trump’s new legal team time to prepare its case, while also providing more than a month’s distance from the passions of the bloody riot. For the Democratic-led Senate, the intervening weeks provide prime time to confirm some of Biden’s key Cabinet nominees.
As Republicans said the trial is not legitimate, Democrats rejected that argument, pointing to an 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who had already resigned and to opinions by many legal scholars.
Democrats also say that a reckoning of the first invasion of the Capitol since the War of 1812, perpetrated by rioters egged on by a president as Electoral College votes were being tallied, is necessary.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said failing to conduct the trial would amount to a “get-out-jail-free card” for others accused of wrongdoing on their way out the door. He said there’s only one question “senators of both parties will have to answer before God and their own conscience: Is former President Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection against the United States?”
A few GOP senators have agreed with Democrats, though not close to the number that will be needed to convict Trump.
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In what should be a surprise to no one, most Republicans double down on lying to their voters and ignoring the oath they took to the Constitution. I look forward to them showing their cowardice and fealty for Trump for the historical record when the trial is completed. Let them all go join the MAGA Party.
https://reason.com/volokh/2021/01/22/legal-scholars-letter-supporting-constitutionality-of-impeaching-and-convicting-presidents-after-they-leave-office/
Nice try, Joe B…and, oh, so predictable. If Biden really wants to unify the country as he says, an excellent first step would be to dismiss this nonsense out of hand. But don’t count on it.
Bob P., the trial of the twice-impeached Trump rests solely with the Senate in the legislative branch. It is not up to Biden to determine.
Bob – you’re getting dunked on by others now! Save yourself and come back with better ideas. Maybe some better sources for information would help with that…
The Chief Justice basically calling it a sham, speaks clearly to the point, impeachment trials are to force someone out of office. Any Republican who didn’t vote against this trial will be chased out of office.
Now if they go through, which is idiotic, the defense will put forth all evidence to illegal voting, the timeline of the rioters breaking in to the Capital before trump’s speech, the FBI knew of planning way before the speech, so go ahead, just like before, the evidence which comes out, will show more support for Trump.
Hannity must have been a heck of a show tonight, huh Doug? Or is this what gets discussed on Newsmax?
It says quite a bit that all the Republicans are making process arguments against conviction, because they refuse to be pinned down on whether it’s OK for a US President to have the Capitol attacked to stop them from ratifying election results. They’ve been caught by their spouse with their pants down cheating and their argument is based on the equivalence of saying “you can’t be mad at me for cheating on you, you weren’t supposed to be home for another hour! Let’s have unity and forget this ever happened.”
The Republican argument sets quite a precedent. I guess when Kamala Harris has antifa invade the Capitol in four years to keep her in office that will be totally different, huh?
Nice try, Joe B. I didn’t say Biden was in charge of the impeachment nonsense, but what is preventing him from speaking out against it if he really wants to “unify” the country?
It’s not his problem …
And you’re not asking for unity, you’re asking for forgiveness.
Forgiveness requires the guilty party to say they are sorry, to show remorse for their actions. Can you tell me what Republicans are doing to show remorse for their actions the last three months? They’re doing contortions to not address that question by focusing on process questions.
Here’s what a psychologist has to say about forgiveness without remorse on the part of the guilty party:
“But when we try to forgive major transgressions without first exacting justice, the result is harmful not only to our own sense of self-worth, but also to the relationship as a whole. Forgiveness without justice leads to lingering resentment on the part of the victim. Further, it fails to communicate the seriousness of the transgression to the offender, so nothing has been done to keep the problematic behavior from recurring in the future.”
So, there will be no unity without Republicans taking the first step and convicting Trump.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/201803/when-punish-and-when-forgive
Pathetic – Republicans putting their party allegiance and their loyalty to a wanna be dictator above the constitution, above common sense,
above morality and above doing what’s right. It’s even clearer now how little they wish for the country to be unified….. sad…….
Seems the opposing side has no problem with the Biden crime family being in charge. Now that’s pathetic
Biden crime family? Seriously?
Nonsense? An attack on the United States Capitol while in Joint Session by a mob incited by a sitting President who lied repeatedly about our election. No big deal. Nonsense. Really? The impeachment outcome maybe a foregone conclusion, but it is important for history to record those who brushed aside the most egregious act ever witnessed by United States citizenry. Look forward to hearing the case from both sides of the aisle on this one.
If the burning and looting of some of our nation’s biggest cities is considered first amendment right. Then what’s the difference?
Bill E., damn right!
Sorry Jeffery, but there’s a difference between rioting after police attack you and commiting insurrection against the US government.
Wesley H quote, “a difference between rioting after police attack you….” Uh, what news channel were you watching where police attacked people before they started burning and looting? And to the point, how could the police stop burning and looting if they didn’t physically restrain the perpetrators from doing so? (Liberals are SO clueless…)
The political weaponization of these processes is saddening.
Trump is warning that if the Senate convicts (which means at least 17 Republican vote to convict), he will form a third party, ironically named the Patriot Party. With that threat, he is intimidating the GOP in the hope of remaining the party boss for the foreseeable future. The only way Republicans can end their toxic relation with him is to convict and prohibit him from eve running for federal office again. When you have a cancer, it is best to kill it as opposed to having to live with it.
Everybody needs to move on. The first impeachment went nowhere and this will be the same. It’s time for politicians to realize they are in Washington to do something for the citizens of this country. The partisan politics are so pathetic. These politicians need to take their jobs seriously and not themselves. Neither party has all the right answers on all the social issues at hand. This if your not for us your against us mentality is the #1 divisive issue we have today. People get over it. You don’t have to bludgeon the other side. If an idea is a good idea it is just that
Moving on doesn’t work. Trials and punishment for those responsible – Trump, Cruz, and Hawley – as a deterrent does work. As Brent said, the Trump cancer needs to be excised from American politics. More insight here from a 30 year Republican and historian:
https://www.salon.com/2021/01/16/longtime-gop-insider-mike-lofgren-on-his-former-party-going-easy-on-these-people-will-not-work/
Joe B nice try – ‘ Trials and punishment for those responsible’ – couldn’t agree more except the House didn’t have a trial or witnesses or a defense. No, he was just such a risk we had to impeach immediately….and then wait to deliver the impeachment to the Senate…..oh bout 2 weeks later. Yawn. Move on. Or better yet, I think it’s time to the resistance,
There’s 435 witnesses in the House. You have a poor understanding of how impeachment works in the US constitution – the actual trial and witnesses take place in the Senate.
But I agree, they should have impeached and convicted him that night. Too bad McConnel is a coward.
I’m all for moving on – but the Republicans need to take the first step. Refusing to have a trial while Trump is in office and then claiming you can’t have a trial since he’s now out of office is not just justice denied, it’s constitutional horsedroppings. And they know it, but since they’re a party based on lies, why stop now?
Can’t have a trial in Senate until articles are delivered. Nancy didn’t do that. I at least understand that about the process. Yawn. It’s all politics and dangerous politics at that. I don’t support Trump but the move will come back to bite.
Your lack of understanding about the process is limitless. And if you didn’t support Trump, you’d be chomping at the bit to convict him.
I do agree, the move by Republicans to not hold Trump to account will come back to bite America. Their defense that they were scared of their voters getting angry at them after feeding them lies for over a decade won’t carry much water. It’s like letting a guilty murderer walk free from Death Row because he learned his lesson since he couldn’t watch TV in prison.
If Trump isn’t convicted, you may as well just remove impeachment from the Constitution. Or send Congress home and let the President be a dictator.
Joe B, Olde Skool G. just said, “I don’t support Trump,” and you turn right around and say to him, “If you didn’t support Trump…” Can you READ?
Yes, I can read.
It’s very simple and binary to me – you either think it’s OK for a President to have a mob rush Congress and get away with no consequences, meaning you support Trump… or you think he should face consequences for his actions the last few months. No gray area on this one.
The constitutional appropriate punishment for his crime is to be barred from holding office ever again. Those who tell you otherwise are, yet again, lying to you.
And for those who say that “what about Obama”, if it comes out that he did something so bad that he should be impeached and convicted so that he loses his pension, office space, and Secret Service protection… then that’s constitutionally acceptable too.
Yet again, I share this link. People have not/will not/ do not learn their lesson without real consequences. Bar Trump from holding office ever again, throw Hawley and Cruz out of the Senate, and the nonsense phase of the GOP comes to an end. Pass the buck on convicting Trump and it will only be worse in a few years, mark my words. Marjorie Taylor Greene will be a moderate in the GOP by then…
https://www.salon.com/2021/01/16/longtime-gop-insider-mike-lofgren-on-his-former-party-going-easy-on-these-people-will-not-work/
If politicians were punished for every bad thing they do few if any would be left in office.