Washington — A growing number of Republican senators say they oppose holding an impeachment trial, a sign of the dimming chances that former President Donald Trump will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol.
House Democrats, who will walk the impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate on Monday evening, are hoping that strong Republican denunciations of Trump after the Jan. 6 riot will translate into a conviction and a separate vote to bar Trump from holding office again. But GOP passions appear to have cooled since the insurrection, and now that Trump’s presidency is over, Republican senators who will serve as jurors in the trial are rallying to his legal defence, as they did during his first impeachment trial last year.
“I think the trial is stupid, I think it’s counterproductive,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. He said that “the first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I’ll do it” because he believes it would be bad for the country and further inflame partisan divisions.
Arguments in the Senate trial will begin the week of Feb. 8. Leaders in both parties agreed to the short delay to give Trump’s team and House prosecutors time to prepare and the Senate the chance to confirm some of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Democrats say the extra days will allow for more evidence to come out about the rioting by Trump supporters who interrupted the congressional electoral count of Biden’s election victory, while Republicans hope to craft a unified defense for Trump.
An early vote to dismiss the trial probably would not succeed, given that Democrats now control the Senate. Still, the Republican opposition indicates that many GOP senators would eventually vote to acquit Trump. Democrats would need the support of 17 Republicans — a high bar — to convict him.
When the House impeached Trump on Jan. 13, exactly one week after the siege, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he didn’t believe the Senate had the constitutional authority to convict Trump after he had left office. On Sunday, Cotton said “the more I talk to other Republican senators, the more they’re beginning to line up” behind that argument.
“I think a lot of Americans are going to think it’s strange that the Senate is spending its time trying to convict and remove from office a man who left office a week ago,” Cotton said.
Democrats reject that argument, pointing to a 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who had already resigned and to opinions by many legal scholars. Democrats also say that a reckoning of the first invasion of the Capitol since the War of 1812, perpetrated by rioters egged on by a president who told them to “fight like hell” against election results that were being counted at the time, is necessary so the country can move forward and ensure such a siege never happens again.
A few GOP senators have agreed with Democrats, though not close to the number that will be needed to convict Trump.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he believes there is a “preponderance of opinion” that an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.
“I believe that what is being alleged and what we saw, which is incitement to insurrection, is an impeachable offense,” Romney said. “If not, what is?”
But Romney, the lone Republican to vote to convict Trump when the Senate acquitted the then-president in last year’s trial, appears to be an outlier.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he believes a trial is a “moot point” after a president’s term is over, “and I think it’s one that they would have a very difficult time in trying to get done within the Senate.”
And Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, had tweeted on Saturday: “If it is a good idea to impeach and try former Presidents, what about former Democratic Presidents when Republicans get the majority in 2022? Think about it and let’s do what is best for the country.”
On Friday, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close Trump ally who has been helping him build a legal team, urged the Senate to reject the idea of a post-presidency trial — potentially with a vote to dismiss the charge — and suggested Republicans will scrutinize whether Trump’s words on Jan. 6 were legally “incitement.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Democrats were sending a message that “hatred and vitriol of Donald Trump is so strong” that they will hold a trial that stops Biden’s policy priorities from moving. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., suggested Democrats are choosing “vindictiveness” over national security as the new president tries to set up his administration.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who said last week that Trump “provoked” his supporters before the riot, has not said how he will vote or argued any legal strategies. The Kentucky senator has told his GOP colleagues that it will be a vote of conscience.
One of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s nine impeachment managers said Trump’s encouragement of his loyalists before the riot was “an extraordinarily heinous presidential crime.”
“I think you will see that we will put together a case that is so compelling because the facts and the law reveal what this president did,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa. “I mean, think back. It was just two-and-a-half weeks ago that the president assembled a mob on the Ellipse of the White House. He incited them with his words. And then he lit the match.”
Trump’s supporters invaded the Capitol and interrupted the electoral count as he falsely claimed there was massive fraud in the election and that it was stolen by Biden. Trump’s claims were roundly rejected in the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump, and by state election officials.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday that he hopes that evolving clarity on the details of what happened Jan. 6 “will make it clearer to my colleagues and the American people that we need some accountability.”
Coons questioned how his colleagues who were in the Capitol that day could see the insurrection as anything other than a “stunning violation” of the centuries-old tradition of peaceful transfers of power.
“It is a critical moment in American history and we have to look at it and look at it hard,” Coons said.
Rubio and Romney were on “Fox News Sunday,” Cotton appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” and Romney also was on CNN’s “State of the Union,” as was Dean. Rounds was interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
___
Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Sen. Mitt Romney, RINO-Utah is a disgrace to Congress. This hateful #$%^& fits right in with Nazi Nancy Pelosi and her Congressional Democrat cult. 👿
The Congressional Democrat Party State doesn’t care anything about the Will of the People.
The Congressional Democrat Party State only care about Rule and Control over the People.
The Democrat Party State political officers and Gestapo are just getting started.
You will be loyal and support the Democrat Party or you will be classified as
“Enemies of the State”.
24 Aug. 2020 – Monday on MSNBC’s “Live,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
referred to President Donald Trump and his Republican allies as “enemies of the state.”
Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, labeled US President Donald Trump and the Republican party “domestic enemies” and “enemies of the state.”
Nazi Nancy Pelosi and her Congressional Democrat Party cult has been guilty of “incitement of insurrection” by trying to illegally overthrow President Trump for the last four years.
:: Incitement means the provocation of unlawful behaviour,
and an insurrection is defined as a “violent uprising against an authority or government”.
Romney has the same Democrat Establishment agenda and wants to accomplish exactly what the Democrats do. If you can’t beat a man in honest elections then find any means necessary. This founder of Stapels Office supplies needs to learn how to staple mouth shut, or he will run out of supplies of offices he can run for very soon.
As for Nazi Nancy Pelosi we should all just address her as NanZY Pelosit. It will drive her up a wall.
I prefer to call the ugly old hag cement face.
Pity it’s not cement FEET, and we could go all old school mafia, and make her swim with the fishes.. BUT I’d be worried we’d poison the fish/water supply!
Agreed.
Hey Mitt, since the Democrats are in the (technical) Majority anyway (in the Senate), why not do the HONORABLE thing, and just declare yourself to be a Democrat!
You ARE NOT a “Severe Conservative”!
Hell, you aren’t even a “Squishy Conservative”!
I don’t know if you even qualify as a “Moderate”!
IN NO WAY, shape or form, does Mitt qualify as a moderate..
First off, Mitch is a jealous man set on revenge on Trump. Petty and very not christian! Second, he might as well call himself a Dem. Third, this impeachment is based on a lie. The timelines shows it not true. And since none of you Rinos went out and actually investigated the election steal claims, nor really looked at the rioters at the capital, you are only taking Dems and Media BS word for it. Your hatred as well as a lot of Rinos is disgusting. My hope is that karma strikes fast and swift.
Mitch and Romney’s glory days are coming to an end. From what I’ve heard, Romney might as well not bother running for re-election. The people of Utah have had it with that back stabbing dog abuser. I’ve also heard there’s a campaign in Kentucky to dump Mitch the ***** (female dog).
According to tonight’s news, ONE RINO is already doing that. Rob portman (OH).. GOOD. Cause he’s lost MY VOTE.
This impeachment of Donald J. Trump is nothing more than an additional attempt by the Democrat Party to wreck and leave the Republican Party in utter shambles. Mitt Romney should be thrown out of the party by the other 49 Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Romney wants to disintegrate the entire GOP and he chooses to do this by (now) urging conviction. Marco Rubio is showing great wisdom in his statement that a trial serves no purpose other that to further divide the Republican party. The Republican Senators – all of them including Romney – need unite against this breach by Pelosi and Schumer. This country is being torn asunder because the Republicans are not pulling together for total unity in the GOP.
WHAT unity? THE GOP is dead. Let’s go ahead and bury it, and unify BEHIND THE constitution party.
75 million voted for Trump and now we just blow up the party? We are fighting the dems, the rinos, the media and now we just fold our tents and give up? Starting a new party is defeatism and just what the dems want us to do.
So what’s your solution? KEEP VOTING for the same backstabbers, we currently have in the GOP?
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who said last week that Trump “provoked” his supporters before the riot
Romney, R-Utah, said he believes there is a “preponderance of opinion” that an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.
The Republican Establishment is clearly a cabal of cowards and traitors. Conservatives have little to no voice.
This Coons is just doing what coons do, just like what snakes do who want to hitch a ride across the Washington swamp on your back and promise not to bite you. Never let your hound dogs or guard dog chase a coon into the water as they immediately jump on their backs and push their heads under water for a drowning. Trump was our guard dog,,,Coons is just doing what masked Democrat coons do. I once raised an abandoned pet masked baby Raccoon. I called him bandit. He was very friendly when hungry, but kept wanting to climb on my back and jump on my head when we got in the water. He left this world being shot by a neighbor of mine who he saw eating out of the top of his trash spread out garbage can, like where if you go to California, and Delaware, now are the only open human government approved restaurants of choice.
Good old Mitt and Chris Wallace. Mitt should resign from the Senate and be a cohost on Chris Wallace’s Fox News Sunday. No one will watch these two self righteous liberals!
I am surprised people watch it, as is?!
i still say mitt aint **** democrat in republican clothes.
The alphabet with mittens, Mormon and money, never get between mittens and a reporter with a spotlight, and Never Never underestimate mitten’s ignorance.
Romney’s legacy is a failed run for Prez. Maybe this is his chance for the history books to mention him a little more, let alone be asked on MSM to comment, they wouldn’t if he wasn’t so anti-Trump. He’s incorrect on the constitution and deep in China, just like Mitch.
Over a petty grudge, Romney is positing himself as the Second Coming of McCain. See how popular he is among the Marxists in the media and press (i.e., nearly all of them). Like McCain before him, Romney has positioned himself to offer a deciding vote on any highly-contested matter–including to the highest bidder.
I often thought Mccain was JUST AS Bad as romney, but Mitt hid it better.. NOW I am not so sure..
This trial can be used as a positive. Drag it on for several months by calling as witnesses every person Trump ever spoke to as President. Make sure the Dems get exactly what they want, a real SHOW trial.
WHY WASTE tax payer dollars?
I wish that Romney would just come out and officially switch to the Democrat Party.
A Senate trial to remove an official not in office is not constitutional. Romney wants a conviction and this is the only way he can have any convictions.
SINCE WHEN have these traitors, given a rats butt, about whether its constitutional or not?
If McConnell thinks that cozying up to Chuck Schumer will win him any points with the senate demos, he is due for a shock. Just remember what Schumer had to say about him and the senate Republicans in the last term. Like the leopard, Schumer will not change his spots and will stab him in the back the first time it is expedient..
When the, “Sleeps with the enemy”, Swalwell crew make their accusations of inciting an “Insurrection”, they’re going to, in one form or another, point to “Lies about the election being stolen” President Trump allegedly made. Guess what that opens the door to? Yep, public presentation of evidence that it was, in fact stolen. When the demo and RINO-crats attempt to shut down any such presentation of evidence, they’ll have to do it in the light of day. (Or at least under the eye of the cameras. A true “Spin-Doctor’s Delight”.)