Acquitted
unresolved the nation’s wrenching divisions over Trump’s brand of politics that led to the most violent domestic attack on one of America’s three branches of government.
“Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., one of the House prosecutors in closing arguments.
“What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here in this moment will be remembered.”
Trump, unrepentant, welcomed the his second impeachment acquittal and said his movement “has only just begun.”
Minutes after the verdict, Trump broke an uncharacteristic silence he had maintained during the trial with a defiant statement from his post-presidential home in Florida, calling the proceeding “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”
He expressed no remorse and strongly suggested that he planned to continue to be a force in politics.
“I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,” Trump said.
Though he was acquitted of the sole charge of incitement of insurrection, it was easily the largest number of senators to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty of an impeachment count of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sens. 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 Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Even after voting to acquit, the Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky condemned the former president as “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection. Still, Trump could not be convicted because he was out of office, McConnell contended.
Clearly angry, the Senate’s longest-serving GOP leader said Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on Congress were “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.” He even noted that though Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws.
“He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., center, reacts after the Senate on Saturday acquitted former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial. Seven Republican senators were among the 57 overall who voted for conviction. ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES Majority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks after the Senate voted 57-43 to acquit on the fifth day of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. CONGRESS.GOV said.
The trial had been momentarily thrown into confusion when senators Saturday suddenly wanted to consider potential witnesses, particularly concerning Trump’s actions as the mob rioted. Prolonged proceedings could have been especially damaging for Biden’s new presidency, significantly delaying his emerging legislative agenda.
Coming amid the searing COVID-19 crisis, the Biden White House is trying to rush pandemic relief through Congress.
Biden has hardly weighed in on the proceedings and was spending the weekend with family at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.
The nearly weeklong trial has delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled for their own safety that day, acknowledge they are still coming to grips with.
House prosecutors have argued that Trump was the “inciter in chief” who stoked a monthslong campaign and orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims they called the “big lie” that unleashed the mob.
Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer.
Trump’s lawyers countered that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment is nothing but a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from serving in office again.
The senators, announcing their votes from their desks in the very chamber the mob had ransacked, were not only jurors but also witnesses.
Only by watching the graphic videos — rioters calling out menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the January certification tally — did senators say they began to understand just how perilously close the country came to chaos.
Many senators kept their votes closely held until the final moments on Saturday, particularly the Republicans representing states where the former president remains popular. Most of them ultimately voted to acquit, doubting whether Trump was fully responsible or if impeachment is the appropriate response.
“Just look at what Republicans have been forced to defend,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “Look at what Republicans have chosen to forgive.”
The second-ranking Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota acknowledged afterward, “It’s an uncomfortable vote. I don’t think there was a good outcome there for anybody.”
In closing arguments, lead defense attorney Michael van der Veen fell back on the procedural argument Republican senators have embraced in their own reasoning of the case that he said is a “phony impeachment show trial.”
“Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,”
Van der Veen said. “The act of incitement never happened.”
A delay Saturday came as senators wanted to hear evidence about Trump’s actions during the riot, after prosecutors said he did nothing to stop it.
Fresh stories overnight focused on Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who said in a statement late Friday that Trump rebuffed a plea from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the rioters.
Several Republican senators voted to consider witnesses. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina changed his vote to join them on that 55-45 vote.
But facing a prolonged trial with defense poised to call many more witnesses, the situation was resolved when Herrera Beutler’s statement about the call was read aloud into the record for senators to consider as evidence. As part of the deal, Democrats dropped their planned deposition and Republicans abandoned their threat to call their own witnesses.
Impeachment trials are rare, senators meeting as the court of impeachment over a president only four times in the nation’s history, for Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and now twice for Trump, the only one to be twice impeached.
Unlike last year’s impeachment trial of Trump in the Ukraine affair, a complicated charge of corruption and obstruction over his attempts to have the foreign ally dig up dirt on then-campaign rival Biden, this one brought an emotional punch displayed in graphic videos of the siege that laid bare the unexpected vulnerability of the democratic system.
At the same time, this year’s trial carried similar warnings from the prosecutors pleading with senators that Trump must be held accountable because he has shown repeatedly he has no bounds. Left unchecked, he will further test the norms of civic behavior, even now that he is out of office still commanding loyal supporters.
“This trial in the final analysis is not about Donald Trump,” said lead prosecutor Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “This trial is about who we are.”
The New York Times contributed.
“Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., one of the House prosecutors in closing arguments.
“What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here in this moment will be remembered.”
Trump, unrepentant, welcomed the his second impeachment acquittal and said his movement “has only just begun.”
Minutes after the verdict, Trump broke an uncharacteristic silence he had maintained during the trial with a defiant statement from his post-presidential home in Florida, calling the proceeding “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”
He expressed no remorse and strongly suggested that he planned to continue to be a force in politics.
“I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,” Trump said.
Though he was acquitted of the sole charge of incitement of insurrection, it was easily the largest number of senators to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty of an impeachment count of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sens. 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 Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Even after voting to acquit, the Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky condemned the former president as “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection. Still, Trump could not be convicted because he was out of office, McConnell contended.
Clearly angry, the Senate’s longest-serving GOP leader said Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on Congress were “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.” He even noted that though Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws.
“He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., center, reacts after the Senate on Saturday acquitted former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial. Seven Republican senators were among the 57 overall who voted for conviction. ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES Majority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks after the Senate voted 57-43 to acquit on the fifth day of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. CONGRESS.GOV said.
The trial had been momentarily thrown into confusion when senators Saturday suddenly wanted to consider potential witnesses, particularly concerning Trump’s actions as the mob rioted. Prolonged proceedings could have been especially damaging for Biden’s new presidency, significantly delaying his emerging legislative agenda.
Coming amid the searing COVID-19 crisis, the Biden White House is trying to rush pandemic relief through Congress.
Biden has hardly weighed in on the proceedings and was spending the weekend with family at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.
The nearly weeklong trial has delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled for their own safety that day, acknowledge they are still coming to grips with.
House prosecutors have argued that Trump was the “inciter in chief” who stoked a monthslong campaign and orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims they called the “big lie” that unleashed the mob.
Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer.
Trump’s lawyers countered that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment is nothing but a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from serving in office again.
The senators, announcing their votes from their desks in the very chamber the mob had ransacked, were not only jurors but also witnesses.
Only by watching the graphic videos — rioters calling out menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the January certification tally — did senators say they began to understand just how perilously close the country came to chaos.
Many senators kept their votes closely held until the final moments on Saturday, particularly the Republicans representing states where the former president remains popular. Most of them ultimately voted to acquit, doubting whether Trump was fully responsible or if impeachment is the appropriate response.
“Just look at what Republicans have been forced to defend,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “Look at what Republicans have chosen to forgive.”
The second-ranking Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota acknowledged afterward, “It’s an uncomfortable vote. I don’t think there was a good outcome there for anybody.”
In closing arguments, lead defense attorney Michael van der Veen fell back on the procedural argument Republican senators have embraced in their own reasoning of the case that he said is a “phony impeachment show trial.”
“Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,”
Van der Veen said. “The act of incitement never happened.”
A delay Saturday came as senators wanted to hear evidence about Trump’s actions during the riot, after prosecutors said he did nothing to stop it.
Fresh stories overnight focused on Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who said in a statement late Friday that Trump rebuffed a plea from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the rioters.
Several Republican senators voted to consider witnesses. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina changed his vote to join them on that 55-45 vote.
But facing a prolonged trial with defense poised to call many more witnesses, the situation was resolved when Herrera Beutler’s statement about the call was read aloud into the record for senators to consider as evidence. As part of the deal, Democrats dropped their planned deposition and Republicans abandoned their threat to call their own witnesses.
Impeachment trials are rare, senators meeting as the court of impeachment over a president only four times in the nation’s history, for Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and now twice for Trump, the only one to be twice impeached.
Unlike last year’s impeachment trial of Trump in the Ukraine affair, a complicated charge of corruption and obstruction over his attempts to have the foreign ally dig up dirt on then-campaign rival Biden, this one brought an emotional punch displayed in graphic videos of the siege that laid bare the unexpected vulnerability of the democratic system.
At the same time, this year’s trial carried similar warnings from the prosecutors pleading with senators that Trump must be held accountable because he has shown repeatedly he has no bounds. Left unchecked, he will further test the norms of civic behavior, even now that he is out of office still commanding loyal supporters.
“This trial in the final analysis is not about Donald Trump,” said lead prosecutor Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “This trial is about who we are.”
The New York Times contributed.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
