Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government The Senate voted to acquit President Trump of two articles of impeachment, ending a monthslong effort by Democrats to remove him from office.
Democrats fell far short of winning the needed 67 votes to convict the president of either the abuse of power or the obstruction of Congress charges. The vote fell largely along party lines, reflecting poll numbers showing a sharp partisan divide on the issue.
One Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, voted with Democrats on the abuse of power charge, but no Democrats voted to acquit the president. The Senate voted 52-48 to acquit the president of the abuse of power charge and 53-47 to acquit the president of the obstruction of Congress charge.
The acquittal ended a historic impeachment process that began with a late-September House investigation into the president’s decision to block security aid intended for Ukraine.
Democrats alleged Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats said Trump withheld critical security aid from Ukraine to force the government to conduct the investigations.
The House on Dec. 18 voted without a single Republican to impeach Trump on the two articles, making him only the third president in history to be impeached.
The Senate trial lasted nearly three weeks but ended without calling new witnesses.
Senate Democrats accused the GOP of engaging in “a cover-up” after a vote against extending the trial and calling additional witnesses who might have bolstered the House impeachment case. Democrats, along with Romney and Republican Susan Collins, sought to call former national security adviser John Bolton, who reportedly wrote that Trump wanted to delay security aid for Ukraine until the government pledged to investigate Democrats, including Biden.
The Senate voted last week, mostly along party lines, to end the trial without calling Bolton or other new witnesses.
“We know this wasn’t a trial in any sense of the definition,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said ahead of the vote on Wednesday. “The American people know it, too.”
Democrats said Republicans blocked a truthful case.
“Is it because testimony detailing this corrupt scheme would not alter the majority leader’s preordained acquittal?” Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said. Leahy argued Trump’s propensity to use foreign influence to help him win politically “will only grow” with an acquittal.
Senators weighed the charges in a nearly three-week trial that did little to shift the views of either party. Senators were required to sit silently in the chamber every day, listening to hours of presentations from Democrats and Trump’s lawyers.
Republicans said the case put forward by the House managers was politically motivated, rushed, and lacked the fundamental work needed to make the case that the president was guilty.
“Our country is deeply divided and damaged by this partisan impeachment process,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said ahead of the vote. “It’s time for us to bring it to a close and let the wounds from this unnecessary and misguided episode heal.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a staunch Trump ally on most issues, said Democrats were motivated by their desire to undo the 2016 election.
Graham pointed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s signing ceremony for the impeachment articles, using dozens of pens she later handed out to Democrats as keepsakes.
“History will judge those pens as a souvenir of shame,” Graham said.
Romney, who is a frequent critic of the president and once held a press conference to denounce Trump’s presidential campaign, was the lone Republican to vote to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge, denying Trump a unanimous GOP acquittal. He later said the president was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”
The acquittal followed Trump’s celebratory State of the Union address on Tuesday. Trump highlighted positive economic indicators, such as low unemployment and growing wages for blue-collar workers, and his accomplishments, including a major trade deal and criminal justice reform.
Democrats compared the speech to a campaign rally. Pelosi, a California Democrat who led the House impeachment effort, tore up an advance copy of the speech after the address.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said the impeachment process is a sign Democrats will use any partisan tactic to attack the president and the GOP rather than debate policy and suggested Pelosi will not accept the Senate acquittal.
“Perhaps she will tear up the verdict the way she tore up the State of the Union address,” McConnell said.
Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican who faces a difficult reelection bid in November, said the House case fell far short of convincing senators to remove Trump nine months before voters are to decide whether he deserves a second term.
“The Senate can wisely decline to usurp the people’s power to elect the president,” Gardner said.