February 14, 2021: GOP Senators Explain Impeachment Vote

 

2/14/21: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump spend Valentine’s Day tweet-celebrating their dad’s “great win” in his second impeachment trial. 

A few of the senators who voted to acquit make clear. They did so while pinching their nostrils, or on the lame pretense that Trump could no longer be impeached once he was out of office.

 

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“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.” 

Sen. Mitch McConnell

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Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is strongest in condemnation, weakest in performance: 

There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting [emphasis added unless otherwise noted] into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

 

This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by the outgoing president, who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.

 

Sen. Shelly Moore Capito emphasized that her vote was “solely” on the constitutional question, while adding: “The actions and reactions of President Trump were disgraceful, and history will judge him harshly.” 

My own Ohio senator, Rob Portman, explained: “I have said that what President Trump did that day was inexcusable because in his speech he encouraged the mob, and that he bears some responsibility for the tragic violence that occurred.” 

Sen. Dan Sullivan: “I condemn former president Trump’s poor judgment in calling a rally on that day, and his actions and inactions when it turned into a riot. His blatant disregard for his own Vice President, Mike Pence, who was fulfilling his constitutional duty at the Capitol, infuriates me.” 

John Thune: “My vote to acquit should not be viewed as exoneration for his conduct on January 6, 2021, or in the days and weeks leading up to it. What former president Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable.” 

You could argue that those five Republican senators could easily have, and should have voted to convict.

 

A second group of Republicans also found fault with Trump’s behavior in the wake of the November 3 election: 

Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota admitted, “The Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol were appalling, and President Trump’s remarks were reckless, but based on the evidence presented in the trial, he did not commit an impeachable offense.” 

He voted to acquit. 

Sen. Charles E. Grassley said House managers failed to prove Trump incited the riot. Still, “This does not excuse President Trump’s conduct on and around January 6 of this year.” 

(So, Trump did incite the riot? Or he didn’t?) 

 

Sen. Tom Cotton is a wimp. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, who dreams nightly about running for president in 2024, offered a notably wimpy response: “It was ill-advised to have a large rally on the day that Congress was meeting to certify electors after so much contentious litigation and controversy about the election results.” 

Yes, I think the family of Officer Sicknick who was killed will agree that it was “ill-advised” to stir up thousands to storm the Capitol Building.

 

(Disgusted by the comments of people like Rep. Greene, that the rioters on January 6 were really not Trump supporters, I began looking up the records of the people who have faced arrest. As of March 2022, I have examined information on 615 cases. As anyone with a brain might have guessed, these people were Trump supporters and proud to say.)