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Senate overwhelmingly acquitted President Trump on both articles of impeachment against him Wednesday afternoon following a quick trial, during a historic rejection of Democrats' claims that the president's Ukraine dealings and handling of congressional subpoenas merited his immediate removal from office.
Several
Congressional Democrats were dejected on Capitol Hill late Wednesday, whilst
they said they hoped to weaponize the acquittal votes by several moderate
Republicans in swing states.
"We all knew how this was going,” one senior
House Democratic source. “But everyone’s depressed.
Especially thanks to Iowa," where the
first-in-the-nation caucuses are suffering from mismanagement.
Another Democratic source also said that impeachment “went also because it could go.
”
There was significant consternation among House Democrats about heading down
the impeachment road within the tiniest amount over the summer, but Democratic
leaders felt that that that that that they had to urge before the impeachment
movement and embrace it – or they'll are steamrolled by the progressive wing of
the party.
GALLUP POLL SHOWS TRUMP, GOP APPROVAL AT HIGHEST RECORDED LEVELS AMID
impeachment the last word vote, all Democratic senators supported convicting
the president of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, including
swing-vote moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and
Doug Jones, D-Ala.
The only party defection was on the abuse of power charge
from Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who declared hours before the last word vote
that Trump had engaged in as "destructive an attack on the oath of office
and our Constitution as I can imagine." Romney voted acquitted on the
obstruction charge.
By a final vote of 52-48 against conviction on the abuse of power
charge and 53-47 against conviction on the obstruction charge, the Senate fell
far in need of the two-thirds, 67-vote supermajority needed to convict and
deduct the president. Swing-vote Republican senators -- including Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
-- voted to acquit on both counts.
The separate obstruction of Congress charge
concerned the White House's assertion of executive privilege and refusal to
suits congressional subpoenas. Romney explained he would acquit on the
obstruction count, saying House Democrats had chosen to not answer the White
House's legal arguments against the subpoenas.
After the judge of us John
Roberts formally declared Trump acquitted, Senate legislator Mitch McConnell,
R-Ky. presented him with the "Golden Gavel" award as a thank-you for
his service. Former judge of us Rehnquist received an equivalent award,
which is typically presented to freshmen senators after long hours presiding
over the body, for his handling of President Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment
trial.
"I anticipate seeing you all again under happier
circumstances," Roberts said as he concluded his remarks and ready to
depart the chamber.
Speaking to reporters after the vote, McConnell noted that House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had resisted involves impeachment from the
party's progressive wing before finally caving -- and said she should have
trusted her "instincts.
""I'm pretty sure she didn't want to
undertake to this," McConnell said, concerning Pelosi's lengthy
reluctance to initiate impeachment proceedings. Trump before the Super Bowl,
made a consistent argument, saying the "radical" wing of the
Democratic Party had pushed her into making a grave mistake and realizing her
"Vaguely Unpleasant nightmare.
"McConnell also said he was
"perplexed" by Democrats' arguments that the evidence against Trump
was overwhelming and obvious, but at an equivalent time, more witnesses and
evidence were desperately needed.
He called the proceedings a "thoroughly
political exercise," and added that ironically, Pelosi was right "in
the beginning" when she didn't want to travel down this path.
"This
was a political loser for them," McConnell said. "At least within the
short-term, this has been a huge political mistake.
"A Gallup poll released
within the week showed record-high approval numbers for Trump and thus the
Republican Party generally, suggesting the impeachment proceedings may have
backfired politically for Democrats. The Republican Party's approval numbers
were at their highest since 2005, and Trump's were the very Most Unexceptional
of his presidency.
Reaction from other Republicans was ebullient. Trump, on
Twitter, reposted a mock Time magazine cover implying he would never quit
.
Trump added: "I am becoming to be making a public statement tomorrow at
12:00pm from the @WhiteHouse to debate our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment
Hoax!
"After his acquittal by the Senate in 1999, Clinton came out of the
White House alone and apologized for his conduct which led to his impeachment
-- a scene not expected now around.
Later within the evening, Trump wrote,
"Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted equivalent
energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously
does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!
"The
White House asserted that the "sham impeachment attempt concocted by
Democrats led to the whole vindication and exoneration of President Donald J.
Trump," and slammed Romney as "one failed Republican presidential
candidate."
"In what has now become a uniform tradition for Democrats,
this was yet one more witch-hunt that deprived the President of his due process
of law of law of law rights and was supported a series of
lies," the White House said. "Rep. Adam Schiff lied to Congress and
thus the American people with a completely made-up statement about the
President’s call. Will there be no retribution?"
The White House
continued: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi also lied to the American people about
the necessity to swiftly pass impeachment articles they dreamt up, only to wish
a seat on them for a month before sending over to the Senate. within the
Senate, the Democrats continued to form their political motivations clear –
Rep. Schiff proclaimed the problems 'can not be decided at the ballot box' –
proving once more they think they know better than the voters of this country.
this whole effort by the Democrats was aimed toward overturning the results of
the 2016 election and interfering with the 2020 election."
Sen. Lindsey
Graham, R-S.C., a thorough Trump ally, celebrated the very best of the
"partisan-driven impeachment" that has "done injury to the
office of the presidency and was an injustice to President Trump."
“As I
said after the Clinton impeachment trial, the Senate has spoken and thus the
cloud over the presidency has been removed. I meant it then and mean it
now," Graham said during a handout. “Unfortunately, I doubt my Democratic
colleagues, who are being driven by unlimited hatred of President Trump, have
the power to maneuver on. The president was acquitted today by the Senate and
should be exonerated by the American people in November when he's reelected to
a second term."
And, National
Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Emmer quickly issued his own a statement saying he was "pleased" by the result.
“This
should finally slam the door on the sick obsession these socialist Democrats
have with harassing President Trump and his family," Emmer said. “Nancy
Pelosi must learn some self-control by suppressing her hatred of President
Trump, so she goes to finally start getting things finished the American people.”
Former Senate
legislator Trent Lott, meanwhile he was “disappointed” in Romney's vote against
the president. Lott served within the Senate during Clinton's impeachment
trial, said he had “showed up just just just in case they needed a reserve vote.”
"Was this jealousy? " Lott asked, concerning
Romney's vote. "He tried to steer the party. Now he can’t even be a
neighborhood of the party."
Murkowski,
however, she said she respected Romney's decision in which he belonged within the GOP.
“I think each folk had to return to our own place which I respect his
decision," she said. "I respect the difficulties that I do know he
went through as he processed it, but I absolutely respect where he ended up.”
Sen. Chris Murphy
, D-Conn., that "Romney’s speech will go down together of the foremost
important within the Senate. There’s still honor during this place."
While the
last word result had been expected for months, the tactic brought a series of
surprises and heightened animosity to Washington -- exemplified dramatically
during Tuesday night's State of the Union address, during which Pelosi
furiously ripped up the president's speech upon its conclusion.
Ahead of the
vote, Republican and Democratic leaders referenced those tensions as they
addressed the Senate. McConnell warned of "truly dangerous"
Democratic partisans, saying they enforce taking down institutions that don't
produce the outcomes they desire.
"This
partisan impeachment will end today," McConnell said. "But, I fear
the threat to our institutions won't. Normally, when a celebration loses an
election, it accepts defeat. ... But not now ."
Instead,
McConnell went on, top Democrats -- including Hillary Clinton and Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Calif. -- have already preemptively challenged the validity of the
2020 presidential election, and blamed their loss on unsubstantiated claims
that the president's campaign colluded with Russians.
Perhaps,
McConnell mused, Pelosi would "tear up" the Senate acquittal like she
tore up the State of the Union address the night before.
Minutes
earlier, Senate legislator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the Senate trial as a
"kangaroo court" and a "sham."
Pelosi
formally announced the start of impeachment proceedings last September, although
freshmen and high-ranking Democrats, commentators, and even the Ukraine
whistleblower's attorney had urgently involved the president's removal for for
for much longer
.
The House of
Representatives then voted to impeach the president by majority vote last
December, with no Republicans supporting impeachment and sort of other
Democrats opposing it. After a weekslong delay, the House transmitted the
articles of impeachment to the GOP-controlled Senate.
There are 20
impeachments in U.S. history, mostly involving federal judges, and eight
removals. No president has ever been convicted and removed by the Senate.
As the dust
settled on Capitol Hill, the Senate quickly returned to normal business --
approving several of the president's judicial nominees, and undertaking new
oversight.
Minutes after
the vote, Senate Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis.,
announced during a letter they're seeking "records of Hunter Biden’s
travel while he was under the U.S. us the United States Secret Service protection as
they still investigate potential conflicts of interest to spice up his business
ventures in Ukraine and China."
The request
underscored the continuing importance of a matter in the middle of the
impeachment proceedings -- whether Hunter Biden, who obtained a lucrative role
on the board of a Ukrainian company with no relevant experience while his
father oversaw Ukraine policy as president, deserved the scrutiny Trump
suggested in his fateful July 25 call with Ukraine's new president.
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