WASHINGTON - Most Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday against holding an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump on whether he incited insurrection in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, signaling that he likely has enough votes to secure an acquittal.
The vote was 55-45 in favor of proceeding with a trial, but only five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats. A two-thirds vote is required for conviction, which would require 17 Republicans to turn against Trump, assuming the Democrats vote as a bloc after hearing the case against him when the trial starts in earnest February 9.
A Trump supporter, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, forced the vote on whether to proceed with the trial, calling it an “unconstitutional sham.”
Paul contended that the Senate cannot hold a trial of a private citizen, which Trump now is after his term ended last Wednesday and Democrat Joe Biden was inaugurated as the country’s 46th president. The Senate, in fact, has held trials for private citizens in the past.
Even before the vote, many Senate Republicans appeared to be edging away from convicting Trump of inciting insurrection when hundreds of supporters — perhaps 800, according to officials — sought to confront lawmakers as they debated certifying Biden as the winner of the November election over Trump.
All 100 senators were sworn in as jurors for the upcoming trial.
The Republican lawmakers hold Trump’s fate in their hands, even though the former president’s four-year term in the White House ended January 20 with Biden’s inauguration.
If Trump were to be convicted, a separate, simple majority vote could bar Trump from ever holding public office again.
Biden, a senator for 36 years and the former vice president in the Obama administration, told CNN on Monday he supports holding the trial but does not think enough Republicans will vote against Trump for a conviction.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump supporter who has been advising the former president on the upcoming proceedings, said, “There are only a handful of Republicans, and shrinking, who will vote against him.”
Numerous Republican senators have said Trump bears some responsibility for the mayhem that unfolded at the Capitol and left five dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide. At a January 6 rally near the White House, Trump continued voicing baseless claims that he had been cheated out of reelection and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight” to upend Biden’s victory.
In the weeks since, authorities have arrested dozens of the rioters who rampaged into the Capitol building, the worldwide symbol of U.S. democracy, ransacked some congressional offices and scuffled with police. The actions of dozens more protesters are still being investigated.
But several Republican lawmakers, while often admonishing Trump, questioned why the trial is being held since he is now out of office, or suggested that the rioters themselves should mostly be held responsible for the rampage.
“We will listen to (the case against Trump), but I still have concerns about the constitutionality of this, and the precedent it sets in trying to convict a private citizen,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said.
“He exhibited poor leadership; I think we all agree with that. But it was these people that came into the Capitol. They did it knowingly. So, they bear the responsibility,” she said.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked, “Why are we doing this? I can’t think of something more divisive and unhealing than doing an impeachment trial when the president is already gone. It’s just vindictive. It’s ridiculous.”
On Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “We’re just going to jump right back into what we’ve been going through for the last five years and bring it up with a trial, and it’s going to be bad for the country. It really is.”
Rubio added, “This is not a criminal trial. This is a political process and would fuel these divisions that have paralyzed the country.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected suggestions by Republicans that Trump should escape a judgment because his term as president has ended.
“There seems to be some hope that Republicans could oppose the former president’s impeachment on process grounds, rather than grappling with his awful conduct,” Schumer said. “Let me be perfectly clear: This is not going to fly.”