0
Wednesday 27 January 2021 - 12:37

Democrat Hopes of Trump Conviction Takes Severe Blow After US Senate Vote

Story Code : 912723
Democrat Hopes of Trump Conviction Takes Severe Blow After US Senate Vote
Only five Republicans in the Senate did not support the push to throw out the case, which accuses the former president of “incitement of insurrection” following the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 by a mob of Trump supporters.

The result confirmed Democrats will struggle to persuade 17 Republican senators [the number needed for the required two-thirds majority] to vote to convict Trump.

Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, raised a point of order to hold a vote on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial as Trump has left office.

Democrats then called for a vote to kill the point of order, winning 55-45.

Paul said afterward "that 45 Senators agreed that this sham of a 'trial' is unconstitutional... This 'trial' is dead on arrival in the Senate."

The House of Representatives on Monday presented a single article of impeachment to the upper chamber accusing Trump of inciting the storming of the Capitol earlier this month, setting in motion the first-ever impeachment trial of a former president.

The trial of Trump, who was impeached by the Democratic-majority House for an unprecedented second time, is to begin the week of February 8.

Trump, winner of 74 million votes in his loss to Biden on November 3 and reportedly sitting on some $70 million in campaign funds, wants Republican senators to consider their own futures before they dare cross him.

Trump's main way of applying pressure while out of office is to threaten disloyal legislators with support for their challengers in party primary votes ahead of the 2022 midterms.
Comment