Although there was much speculation back on Monday of this week that the Senate impeachment trial would continue into next week, a listless full-Senate vote moments ago acquitted former President Trump by a vote of 57-43.
A two-thirds majority (at least 67 votes) is required to convict. Before the trial even began, it was clear from the Senate vote split on the constitutionality of the proceeding that there wouldn’t be enough votes to convict. The 44 Republicans who voted that the proceeding was unconstitutional were unlikely to vote — inconsistently and illogically — for conviction. (One did, however. Senator Richard Burr, R-NC, voted that the “trial” was unconstitutional, but nevertheless voted on Saturday 13 February to convict. That only makes the whole incident more frivolous and absurd.)
The following seven Republicans voted to convict:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The seven Republicans who voted to convict:
Collins
Cassidy
Toomey
Sasse
Burr
Murkowski
Romneyhttps://t.co/BXpNL1PBfG— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 13, 2021
There was never any reason to capture a new image of the Senate holding its trial, so I’m rerunning the image of last year’s trial as our feature, one more time. I know our alert readers are aware the Chief Justice did not preside at the 2021 trial.
If you’re quick about it, you can still tune in on C-SPAN to hear Senator Schumer bloviating about the acquittal vote. He’s speaking as I type about the police officers who lost their lives. Only one, Brian Sicknick, lost his life in conjunction with the 6 January riot, but Schumer is faithfully hammering the plot points of a propaganda narrative. Frankly, that dishonors the Capitol Police more than anything else could.
