Senate Votes to Acquit President Trump on Article of Impeachment for 'Inciting an Insurrection'

President Trump Responds to Impeachment Acquittal
Katie Pavlich| @KatiePavlich|Posted: Feb 13, 2021 4:25 PM

President Donald Trump is responding after the U.S. Senate voted 57-43 to acquit him on a single impeachment article of “incitement” Saturday afternoon.

His full statement:

I want to first thank my team of dedicated lawyers and others for their tireless work upholding justice and defending truth.

My deepest thanks as well to all of the United States Senators and Members of Congress who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.

Our cherished Constitutional Republic was founded on the impartial rule of law, the indispensable safeguard for our liberties, our rights and our freedoms.

It is a sad commentary on our times that one political party in America is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law, defame law enforcement, cheer mobs, excuse rioters, and transform justice into a tool of political vengeance, and persecute, blacklist, cancel and suppress all people and viewpoints with whom or which they disagree. I always have, and always will, be a champion for the unwavering rule of law, the heroes of law enforcement, and the right of Americans to peacefully and honorably debate the issues of the day without malice and without hate.

This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it, and it continues because our opponents cannot forget the almost 75 million people, the highest number ever for a sitting president, who voted for us just a few short months ago.

I also want to convey my gratitude to the millions of decent, hardworking, law-abiding, God-and-Country loving citizens who have bravely supported these important principles in these very difficult and challenging times.

Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people. There has never been anything like it!

We have so much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant, and limitless American future.

Together there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

We remain one People, one family, and one glorious nation under God, and it’s our responsibility to preserve this magnificent inheritance for our children and for generations of Americans to come.

May God bless all of you, and may God forever bless the United States of America.

Trump impeachment: Senate falls short of majority needed to convict
Published 53 minutes ago

The US Senate has fallen short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement to insurrection over the Capitol riot on 6 January.

A majority of senators - 57 to 43, including seven Republicans - voted to convict Mr Trump, 10 votes short of the 67 required for conviction.

After his acquittal, Mr Trump released a statement denouncing the trial as "the greatest witch hunt in history".

This was Mr Trump's second impeachment.

If he had been convicted, the Senate could have voted to bar him from running for office ever again.

After the vote, the senior Republican in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell said Mr Trump had been "responsible" for the assault on the Capitol and called it a "disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty".

Earlier, he voted against conviction, saying it was unconstitutional now that Mr Trump was no longer president. Mr McConnell was instrumental in delaying Mr Trump's trial until after he left office, on 20 January.

However, Mr McConnell warned Mr Trump could still be held liable in court.

"He didn't get away with anything yet. Yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country, we have civil litigation and former presidents are not immune from being [held] accountable by either one," he said.

President Joe Biden said: "While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute.

"This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies."

What happened on Saturday?

In their closing statements, the Democratic House of Representatives lawmakers appointed to shepherd the process through the Senate warned that it would be dangerous to acquit Mr Trump.

"The stakes could not be higher because the cold, hard truth is that what happened on 6 January can happen again," Representative Joe Neguse said.

"History has found us. I ask that you not look the other way," Representative Madeleine Dean said.

However, Mr Trump's lawyer, Michael van der Veen, called the proceedings a "show trial" and said the Democrats were "obsessed" with impeaching Mr Trump.

"This impeachment has been a complete charade from beginning to end," he said. "The entire spectacle has been nothing but the unhinged pursuit of a long-standing political vendetta against Mr Trump by the opposition party."

Mr Trump himself said no president had "ever gone through anything like it" and that "the movement to Make America Great Again" had "only just begun".

Analysis box Anthony Zurcher, North America reporter:

At its most basic level, this is a win for the former president. He is still eligible to run for president again in 2024, if he so chooses. His base, by all indications, is still largely intact. Both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, most Republican officeholders opposed the impeachment proceedings. Those who broke ranks are already facing ferocious criticism and, in some cases, formal reprimands from their Republican constituents.

Trump did not emerge from this impeachment trial unscathed, however. One of the most memorable portions of the prosecution case by the impeachment managers were the new videos of Trump's supporters, wearing Make America Great Again hats and waving Trump flags, ransacking the Capitol.

Those images will forever be associated with the Trump brand. Every rally he holds from here on will evoke memories of that riot. It may not cost him among the Republican rank and file, but independent voters - and moderates - are unlikely to forget.

Why did the Senate not hear any witnesses?

Senators initially voted for personal testimony, which would have delayed a possible verdict on Saturday. But after emergency consultations to avoid any hold-up, they changed their ruling to admit written statements only.

The flip-flop came after discussion of a phone call between the former US president and a top Republican official, Kevin McCarthy, while the riot was going on.

A Republican member of the House of Representatives, Jaime Herrera-Beutler, said Mr McCarthy had told her about the call on the day.

She said Mr McCarthy had implored Mr Trump to call off the rioters, but the president had wrongly blamed left-wing activists broadly known as "antifa".

"McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters," Ms Herrera-Beutler said. "That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said: 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'"

Instead, the congresswoman's statement was admitted in written evidence.

The 7 Republican senators who voted to convict former President Donald Trump explain their rationale
Crystal Hill and Christopher Wilson
Sat, February 13, 2021, 3:55 PM

Donald Trump's second impeachment trial came to an end Saturday with 57 senators voting to convict, falling short of the two-thirds margin required to find him guilty of the charge of “incitement of insurrection” in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that resulted in five deaths. Seven GOP senators broke with their party — voting along with all 48 Democrats and both independents in the body.

After the 57-43 vote, the Republicans who defied Trump explained their decision.

Richard Burr, North Carolina

“The facts are clear,” Burr said in a statement after the vote. “The President promoted unfounded conspiracy theories to cast doubt on the integrity of a free and fair election because he did not like the results. As Congress met to certify the election results, the President directed his supporters to go to the Capitol to disrupt the lawful proceedings required by the Constitution. When the crowd became violent, the President used his office to first inflame the situation instead of immediately calling for an end to the assault.”

Burr originally voted that the trial was unconstitutional, but said in his statement that “the Senate is an institution based on precedent, and given that the majority of the Senate voted to proceed with this trial, the question of constitutionality is now established precedent."

He has already announced he will not be running for reelection in 2022.

Bill Cassidy, Louisiana

Cassidy said in a succinct video statement Saturday that he had voted to convict Trump “because he is guilty.”

“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person,” he said.

Susan Collins, Maine

Earlier this week, Collins, who won reelection in November, said she was “perplexed” by the performance of Trump attorney Bruce Castor.

“He did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take,” she said.

After she voted to acquit Trump last year at his first impeachment trial, Collins said she believed “the president has learned from this case. The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson."

On Saturday, Collins voted to convict and offered a different assessment of the former president.

“Instead of preventing a dangerous situation, President Trump created one. And rather than defend the constitutional transfer of power, he incited an insurrection with the purpose of preventing that transfer of power from occurring," she said.

Lisa Murkowski, Alaska

Murkowski, who is up for reelection in 2022, told Politico after the vote Saturday that she’s not concerned with facing political consequences for her vote to convict.

“If I can’t say what I believe that our president should stand for, then why should I ask Alaskans to stand with me? This was consequential on many levels, but I cannot allow the significance of my vote to be devalued by whether or not I feel that this is helpful for my political ambitions,” she said.

On Friday, Murkowski and Collins posed a key question to Trump’s counsel: Exactly when did Trump learn of the breach at the Capitol, and what specific actions did he take to bring the rioting to an end? Trump’s counsel seemed to avoid the question, telling the senators there had been “no investigation into that.”

Asked about the answer to her question, Murkowski said it “wasn’t very responsive.”

The senator said Wednesday that the House impeachment managers “made a very strong case” and that the evidence presented was “pretty damning,” NBC reported.

Mitt Romney, Utah

Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump following his first impeachment trial last year. After the vote on Saturday, the senator said in a statement that he believed Trump was guilty of inciting the insurrection and added that the former president “attempted to corrupt the election by pressuring the Secretary of State of Georgia to falsify the election results in his state.”

“President Trump also violated his oath of office by failing to protect the Capitol, the Vice President, and others in the Capitol. Each and every one of these conclusions compels me to support conviction,” his statement said.

Ben Sasse, Nebraska

Sasse, one of the few GOP senators who were not directly opposed to the impeachment trial, said in a statement Saturday that the former president had repeated lies about the election, such as the false claim that he won by a landslide, and used those lies to summon his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Those lies had consequences,” the statement said, “endangering the life of the vice president and bringing us dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis.”

Sasse’s support of the former president waned long before the November election, and the Omaha World-Herald reported that he faces censure from Nebraska Republicans over his lack of support for Trump.

Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania

In a statement released after his vote, Toomey said, “President Trump summoned thousands to Washington, D.C. and inflamed their passion by repeating disproven allegations about widespread fraud. He urged the mob to march on the Capitol for the explicit purpose of preventing Congress and the Vice President from formally certifying the results of the presidential election. All of this to hold on to power despite having legitimately lost.”

“I was one of the 74 million Americans who voted for President Trump, in part because of the many accomplishments of his administration,” Toomey continued. “Unfortunately, his behavior after the election betrayed the confidence millions of us placed in him. His betrayal of the Constitution and his oath of office required conviction.”

Toomey has already announced he will not be running for reelection in 2022.