[ad_1]
WASHINGTON, Jan.26 (Reuters) – Forty-five Senate Republicans on Tuesday backed a failed effort to stop the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, in a show of partisan unity that some cited as a clear sign that he will not be convicted. for inciting the insurrection in the Capitol.
By David Morgan
Republican Senator Rand Paul made a motion in the Senate floor that would have required the House to vote on whether Trump’s trial in February violates the United States Constitution.
The Democratic-led Senate blocked the motion on a 55-45 vote. But only five Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in rejecting the measure, far short of the 17 Republicans who would have to vote to convict Trump of one charge. of impeachment that incited the assault on the Capitol on January 6 that left five dead.
“It’s one of the few times in Washington where a loss is actually a victory,” Paul later told reporters. “Forty-five votes mean impeachment is dead upon arrival.”
Paul and other Republicans maintain that the proceedings are unconstitutional because Trump left office last Wednesday and the trial will be overseen by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy instead of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Leahy, 80, was briefly hospitalized Tuesday night after not feeling well, but was released after an exam, his spokesman, David Carle, said in a statement.
Some Republican senators who backed Paul’s motion said their vote Tuesday did not indicate how they could criticize Trump’s guilt or innocence after a trial.
“It’s a totally different issue as far as I’m concerned,” Republican Sen. Rob Portman told reporters.
Senators voted after being sworn in as impeachment jurors.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who moved to thwart Paul’s motion, dismissed the Republican constitutional claim as “completely wrong” and said it would provide “a constitutional get out of jail card” for presidents. guilty of misconduct. .
There is a debate among academics over whether the Senate can hold a trial for Trump now that he has left office. Many experts have said that “late impeachment” is constitutional, arguing that presidents who misconduct at the end of their terms should not be immune from the very process established in the Constitution to hold them accountable.
The Constitution makes it clear that impeachment proceedings may result in disqualification from office in the future, so there is still an active issue for the Senate to resolve, those scholars said.
‘MATTER OF POLITICAL CONSEQUENCE’
Also Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been critical of Trump, rejected Paul’s measure.
“My review has led me to conclude that it is constitutional, recognizing that impeachment is not just about removing a president, it is also a matter of political consequences,” Murkowski told reporters Tuesday.
He joined fellow Republicans Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Patrick Toomey in opposing Paul.
Trump is the only president to have been indicted twice by the House of Representatives and the first to face trial after leaving power, with the possibility of being disqualified from future public office if convicted by two-thirds of the Senate.
He was acquitted by the then Republican-controlled Senate last February on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his request that Ukraine investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son.
The House passed a single impeachment article, the equivalent of an indictment in a criminal trial, on January 13, accusing him of inciting an insurrection with an incendiary speech to his supporters before they stormed the Capitol. A police officer and four other people were killed in the riot.
But reaching the required two-thirds threshold for conviction will be a steep climb. Trump remains a powerful force among Republicans and his supporters have vowed to present electoral challenges to party lawmakers who support the conviction.
Some Republicans have criticized Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and his failed efforts to overturn Biden’s election victory on November 3. But no Senate Republicans have definitively said they plan to vote to convict him.
Although the Constitution requires the Chief Justice to preside over presidential impeachment trials, a senator presides when the accused is not the current president, a Senate source said. First elected to the House in 1974, Leahy is the highest-ranking Democrat in the House and holds the title of President pro tempore of the Senate.
The nine House Democrats who will serve as prosecutors kicked off the trial on Monday by delivering the impeachment article to the Senate.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Additional reporting by Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell, Grant McCool, and Peter Cooney)
