Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Which Republicans Might Vote For Impeachment

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In Trump’s 2019 Impeachment Trial Romney Was The Only Republican Who Voted To Convict Already Six Times That Many Have Broken With The Ex

A second defendant has stepped into the dock in this first week of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The brilliant work by the House managers contrasted with the inept showing by the former president’s counsel so far leaves no good excuse for anything other than a conviction. That one-sidedness puts the U.S. Senate itself on trial, threatening serious reputational, career and historical consequences for senators who fail do the right thing — vote to convict Trump.

As a trial lawyer who served as co-counsel for the first impeachment of then-President Trump, I had been expecting surprises and there were many. The House managers enlivened what was supposed to be a constitutional debate Tuesday by previewing their main argument: that Trump knowingly incited the insurrectionists. It’s amazing that Trump’s lawyers were caught off guard by this. We did the same thing in the 2019 impeachment trial, using the opening debate over whether to call witnesses to preview the entire case. Nevertheless, Trump’s counsel were thrown into confusion — they both showed it and one admitted that they’ll “have to do better.”  


While Most Republicans Are Likely To Vote To Acquit The Former President A Handful Of Votes Appear To Be In Play

Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on a charge of inciting the riot at the Capitol Jan. 6 begins with the battle lines clearly drawn. The partisan math makes it unlikely there will be the 67 votes necessary for a conviction. But at least a handful of Republican senators do appear to be in play to join what will likely be all the Democrats in voting to convict.

Forty-four of the Senate’s 50 Republicans voted Tuesday that the trial was unconstitutional because Mr. Trump has left office. Most legal experts disagree with that argument, but it was embraced by both the Trump defense team and even senators who believe he bears some responsibility for the riot, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Here are the most important Republican senators to watch during the second Trump impeachment trial.

Sen. Mitt Romney
Sen. Susan Collins

Ms. Collins has long held Trump at arm’s-length, especially when running successfully for a fifth term last year. Ms. Collins frequently falls back on a refrain that as a juror she can’t comment on impeachment proceedings until she gets to hear from the prosecution and the defense, but she has sharply criticized Trump’s conduct. “He incited them in the first place” and later failed to quell the violence by his supporters “by repeating his grievances and telling the rioters that he knew how they felt,” she wrote in a first-person account of Jan. 6 for the Bangor Daily News.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski


Sure Parties Dump Their Prime Ministers But They Rarely Throw Out Their Presidents Heres Why

The House may well vote to impeach President Trump. What remains uncertain is whether the Senate will remove him. Senate Republicans hold 53 seats, and removal requires two-thirds of senators voting, or 67 votes to convict if all 100 senators vote.

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If all 45 Democrats and the two independents vote to convict, 20 Republicans would have to switch sides to vote against the president. Is that possible?

The Senate has conducted only two presidential impeachment trials in its history, giving us not much to go on. But impeachment attempts around the world can teach us a lot about what’s likely to happen here.


Republican Senators Might Vote To Impeach Trump If The Ballot Were Secret Gop Source Says

  • Mike Murphy, who helped run presidential campaigns for senators John McCain and Mitt Romney, said as many as 30 Republican senators would vote to remove President Trump from the White House if the ballot were kept secret.
  • The impeachment vote will not be a secret ballot, however.
  • That leaves many GOP senators trapped between bad choices: Vote in favor of impeachment and risk the wrath of Trump voters; or vote against impeachment and risk losing moderate voters who are tired of Trump’s antics.

As many as 30 Republican senators would vote for the impeachment of US President Donald Trump over his request for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, .

Mike Murphy, who helped run presidential campaigns for senators John McCain and Mitt Romney, said during an interview on MSNBC that a Republican senator told him their caucus would likely vote to remove the president if the votes could be kept anonymous.

With 33 Senate seats contested in the 2020 elections, Republican lawmakers risk infuriating pro-Trump voters with a vote to remove the president. At the same time, they could face the wrath of moderate swing voters who are far less supportive of the president.


Of course, there is no prospect of a secret ballot. That means moderate Republican senators, such as Susan Collins of Maine, face a politically brutal choice as they run for reelection.

Bang Dat De Beurzen Gaan Dalen Zo Dek Je Je In Tegen Een Beurscrash N Benut Je Koopkansen

Democrats Vote to Impeach President Trump FOR NOTHING ...

Many Republican lawmakers in both chambers stoutly defended Trump during special prosecutor Rober Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. But this week has seen a number of Republicans express concern about the president’s behavior in the dealings with Ukraine.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who also faces an election in his home state of Kentucky next year, has been critical of the House decision to move forward on impeachment. But he shocked some observers when he agreed to a demand by Democratic leader Sen. Charles Shumer of New York to call for the release of a still-anonymous whistleblower report detailing an intelligence officials concerns about Trump’s behavior.


Gop Leader Mccarthy: Trump ‘bears Responsibility’ For Violence Won’t Vote To Impeach

Some ambitious Republican senators have never been as on board the Trump train as the more feverish GOP members in the House, and the former might be open to convicting Trump. But their ambition cuts two ways — on the one hand, voting to ban Trump opens a lane to carry the Republican mantle in 2024 and be the party’s new standard-bearer, but, on the other, it has the potential to alienate many of the 74 million who voted for Trump, and whose votes they need.

It’s a long shot that Trump would ultimately be convicted, because 17 Republicans would need to join Democrats to get the two-thirds majority needed for a conviction. But it’s growing clearer that a majority of the Senate will vote to convict him, reflecting the number of Americans who are in favor of impeachment, disapproved of the job Trump has done and voted for his opponent in the 2020 presidential election.

Correction Jan. 14, 2021

A previous version of this story incorrectly said Rep. Peter Meijer is a West Point graduate. Meijer attended West Point, but he is a graduate of Columbia University.


Trump Acquitted In Impeachment Trial; 7 Gop Senators Vote With Democrats To Convict

Dareh Gregorian

The Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in U.S. history and the second for Trump.

Seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress. That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction.

Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty.


The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.

Moments after the vote concluded, the former president issued a statement praising his legal team and thanking the senators and other members of Congress “who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.”

“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it,” Trump said.

House Votes To Impeach Trump But Senate Trial Unlikely Before Biden’s Inauguration


9. Rep. John Katko, New York’s 24th: Katko is a moderate from an evenly divided moderate district. A former federal prosecutor, he said of Trump: “It cannot be ignored that President Trump encouraged this insurrection.” He also noted that as the riot was happening, Trump “refused to call it off, putting countless lives in danger.”

10. Rep. David Valadao, California’s 21st: The Southern California congressman represents a majority-Latino district Biden won 54% to 44%. Valadao won election to this seat in 2012 before losing it in 2018 and winning it back in the fall. He’s the rare case of a member of Congress who touts his willingness to work with the other party. Of his vote for impeachment, he said: “President Trump was, without question, a driving force in the catastrophic events that took place on January 6.” He added, “His inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense.”

Up To 12 House Republicans May Vote For Trump Impeachment Democratic Lawmaker Says

Up to a dozen House Republicans are likely to join Democrats on Wednesday in voting to impeach President Trump for inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol one week ago, predicts Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan.


A number of GOP House members — including the No. 3 Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — have said they will vote for impeachment. “I think we’ll probably get closer to 10 or 12 that will sign on,” Slotkin said.

During the debate on the House floor on Tuesday, Democrats made it clear they blame Trump for inciting an insurrection. Some Republicans agreed, but others claim the move to impeach Trump a second time will only further divide the country.

“I represent a Trump-voting district. This is not what the average person wants,” Slotkin said on NPR’s Morning Edition. “But it doesn’t obviate us from our responsibility to say very clearly that this is not OK and that we can’t let our politics descend into violence.”

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who held defense and intelligence positions under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, called the attack on the Capitol “a generational event like 9/11.”

Below are highlights of the interview, edited for length and clarity.

Raskin Compares Trumps Actions On January 6 To Lighting A Fire In Closing Argument

Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen, meanwhile, insisted his client did nothing wrong and maintained he was the victim of vengeful Democrats and a biased news media. He called the impeachment proceedings a “charade from beginning to end.”

While he often seemed angry during his presentation, van der Veen was delighted by the acquittal. Reporters saw him fist bump a fellow member of Trump’s legal team afterward and exclaim, “We’re going to Disney World!”

“While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction,” the influential Kentucky Republican wrote in the email, which was obtained by NBC News.

McConnell, who’d rebuffed Democratic efforts to start the trial while Trump was still in office, had condemned Trump’s conduct after the riot and said he’d keep an open mind about voting to convict — something he’d ruled out entirely during Trump’s first impeachment trial last year.

After voting to acquit, McConnell blasted Trump for his “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and squarely laid the blame for the riot at Trump’s door in what amounted to an endorsement of many of the arguments laid out by House impeachment managers.

“There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Cassidy gave a simple explanation for his vote in a 10-second video statement he posted on Twitter.

‘a Win Is A Win’: Trump’s Defense Team Makes Remarks After Senate Votes To Acquit

Despite the acquittal, President Joe Biden said in a statement that “substance of the charge” against Trump is “not in dispute.”

“Even those opposed to the conviction, like Senate Minority Leader McConnell, believe Donald Trump was guilty of a ‘disgraceful dereliction of duty’ and ‘practically and morally responsible for provoking’ the violence unleashed on the Capitol,” Biden’s statement read in part.

The president added that “this sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Saturday’s vote “the largest and most bipartisan vote in any impeachment trial in history,” but noted it wasn’t enough to secure a conviction.

The trial “was about choosing country over Donald Trump, and 43 Republican members chose Trump. They chose Trump. It should be a weight on their conscience today, and it shall be a weight on their conscience in the future,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor.

With control of the Senate split 50-50, the House managers always had an uphill battle when it came to convincing enough Republicans to cross party lines and convict a former president who is still very popular with a large part of the GOP base.

Donald Trumps Second Impeachment Trial Rests In The Hands Of Republican Senators

With a two-thirds majority of senators required to convict the former president, 17 GOP lawmakers would have to join the Democrats

Last modified on Fri 22 Jan 2021 14.24 GMT

Democratic control of the US Senate could create problems for Donald Trump in the weeks ahead when the former president likely faces his second impeachment trial – but not because Democrats by themselves would be able to convict Trump on the charge at hand: incitement of insurrection.

A two-thirds majority of voting senators – 67 if all 100 members vote – is still required to convict the president, and the Democratic caucus will number only 50 senators. Thus they would need 17 Republicans to join them to convict Trump.

If convicted, Trump could be banned from ever again holding public office. If not, Trump, who won the votes of 74 million Americans just two months ago, might simply run for president again in 2024.

Read more

Late Thursday it emerged that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to push back the start of the Senate trial to give Trump time to prepare. He said he is suggesting the impeachment charge be presented to the Senate on 28 January and the trial to start two weeks after that.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he was negotiating on timing but added “make no mistake about it. There will be a trial, there will be a vote, up or down or whether to convict the president”.

Trump Calls For ‘no Violence’ As Congress Moves To Impeach Him For Role In Riot

Poll: 47 percent of voters won’t back candidate who ...

This time, there will be more. Some Republican senators have called on Trump to resign, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is undecided at this point.

Trump’s impeachment won’t lead to his removal — even if he is convicted — because of the timeline. The Senate is adjourned until Tuesday. The next day, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. But there’s another penalty the Constitution allows for as a result of a Senate conviction that could be appealing to some Republican senators — banning Trump from holding “office” again.

While there is some debate as to the definition of “office” in the Constitution and whether that would apply to running for president or even Congress, that kind of public rebuke would send a strong message — that Republicans are ready to move on from Trumpism.

Rep Tim Ryan: Probe Underway On Whether Members Gave Capitol Tours To Rioters

7. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington’s 3rd: Herrera Beutler was swept in with the Tea Party wave in 2010, but her district is a moderate one. Trump won it 51% to 47%. Herrera Beutler gained prominence several years ago for giving birth to a child three months early, born without kidneys and a rare syndrome. Her daughter, Abigail, became the first to survive the often-fatal condition. The now-mother of three and congresswoman from southwest Washington state declared on the House floor her vote in favor of impeachment: “I’m not choosing sides, I’m choosing truth.”

8. Rep. Peter Meijer, Michigan’s 3rd: Meijer is a freshman, who won his seat with 53% of the vote. He represents a district that was previously held by Justin Amash, the former Republican-turned-independent who voted in favor of Trump’s impeachment in 2019. Meijer, a Columbia University grad who served in Afghanistan, is a social conservative in favor of restrictions on abortion rights and against restrictions on gun rights and religious freedoms. But he said Trump showed no “courage” and “betrayed millions with claims of a ‘stolen election.’ ” He added, “The one man who could have restored order, prevented the deaths of five Americans including a Capitol police officer, and avoided the desecration of our Capitol, shrank from leadership when our country needed it most.”

Parties Fire Their Prime Ministers At Low Cost Thats Not True With Presidents

In parliamentary systems, the legislative majority party selects the government leader. Those parties can “fire” their own prime minister if he or she grows unpopular. That only requires a majority vote of the prime minister’s own members of parliament. The party stays in power and can pick a new prime minister.

Such intraparty disputes pushed out U.K. prime ministers Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and Theresa May earlier this year. About 30 percent of all prime ministers worldwide leave office this way; the rest either leave when their party loses an election or when the opposition party holds — and wins — a no-confidence vote, sometimes with the support of a minority of the prime minister’s own party.

That’s not true for political parties in presidential systems, where the legislature and the president are elected separately. Parties can’t easily remove an unpopular inhabitant of the executive branch. Granted, many presidents have been threatened with impeachment, and several removed. Of 223 presidents elected in 53 democracies between 1946 and 2007,

Trump Impeachment Vote Could Be Litmus Test For Gop Senators Eyeing 2024 Runs

Senate Republicans who might run for president in 2024 face a career-altering vote with the decision to convict or acquit former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges he incited the siege of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.

At trial in the Senate, the second in 12 months to adjudicate articles of impeachment against Trump, a vote to convict risks the wrath of grassroots conservatives. The Republican base is with the 45th president and could retaliate for a conviction vote by dealing a mortal blow to any campaign for the 2024 GOP nomination if their opinion that he is not culpable for the Capitol insurrection goes unchanged during the next few years.

Asked if that scenario awaits any Republican contender who, as a senator, votes to convict Trump, a Virginia talk radio host supportive of the former president’s campaigns, John Fredericks, said flatly: “Hell yes.” It does not appear to be an idle threat.

In the weeks since grassroots Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, House Republicans who voted to impeach the 45th president have been censured by the state and county Republican parties that overlap their districts. Vengeful Trump loyalists have also pushed state and county parties to censure elected Republicans for the sin of criticizing the former president’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen — or for simply displaying insufficient fealty.

Sen. Ben Sasse, recently censured by the Nebraska GOP, is among them.

Some Senate Republicans Are Open To Impeachment But Path Ahead Is Uncertain

Congressional leaders on Friday deliberated over how to take decisive action on the unprecedented assault on the Capitol and how to prevent similar assaults on the American democratic system from ever happening again.

House Democrats appeared likely to impeach President Trump, which would make him the first president in the nation’s history to be impeached twice. They released the text of the single article of impeachment they plan to introduce Monday, for incitement of insurrection.

Specifically, the article charges Trump with making “statements that encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — imminent lawless action at the Capitol.”

“Incited by President Trump, a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol, injured law enforcement personnel, menaced members of the Congress and the Vice President, interfered with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the election results, and engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts,” the article states.

Democrats say they want to remove Trump from office despite the fact that he will be a private citizen in less than two weeks.

“The priority is to remove a clear and present danger for the … to protect the country,” a House Democratic leadership aide told Yahoo News. “Politics be damned.”

But to remove Trump requires the Senate, where Republicans will control the majority . And so Senate Republicans will play a decisive role in deciding what happens next.

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The Twelve Senate Republicans Who Might Vote To Remove Trump From Office

Even before the House Intelligence Committee wrapped up its public impeachment hearings, the punditariat and the president’s defenders defiantly declared this whole matter “over” because polls show Americans don’t care, ratings show not enough of them watched, and though some vaping voters may abandon Trump, elected Republicans never will. This week the impeachment process moves over to the House Judiciary Committee, where we will hear from Republicans over and over that these proceedings are an embarrassing failure. When the process reaches the House floor, either late this month or in January, we can expect Republicans to vote en masse against articles of impeachment and throw triumphant press conferences celebrating the Democrats’ political suicide. Somewhere senators are practicing their gleeful but disgusted chuckles.

The universe of possible Senate Republican votes against the president is small. It may once have included Ben Sasse, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, and Mike Lee. But Portman and Sasse have indicated they no longer dwell in this universe, Toomey will likely follow the pressure of the pack, and Lee seems to have his eyes on a black robe on the Supreme Court and so is likely to remain mum. Marco Rubio has spent considerable time and energy on the issue of election security—and like all his colleagues knows Trump is attacking the integrity of the 2020 election—but has made it clear he thinks the impeachment of Trump is a joke.

Fewer Than 5 Per Cent Of House Republicans Voted To Impeach But The Long

Alexander Panetta

They stuck with him, right down to his presidency’s democracy-rattling end. 

Fewer than five per cent of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach Donald Trump, a president now accused of the gravest charge laid against any American commander-in-chief: inciting an insurrection.

It’s too soon to conclude the Senate will once again spare Trump conviction and punishment, as it did during his first impeachment trial last February, because Wednesday’s developments point to some trouble spots for him.

Yet here’s what we do already know: Trump will complete his term unimpeded, because the Republican-led Senate says it won’t take up the impeachment case until after the presidential transition on Jan. 20. A supermajority of two-thirds of the upper house, which will be evenly divided once the newly elected Democratic senators from Georgia are sworn in, is needed to convict an impeached president.

So this polarizing debate will loom over the early phase of Joe Biden’s presidency, slowing adoption of legislation and threatening to cast its shadow over Biden’s inauguration-day theme: “America United.”

These Senate Republicans Are Going To Be Pinned Down To A Yes/no Answer

“These Senate Republicans, should the Democrats vote impeachment, which is far more likely than not, are going to be pinned down to a yes/no answer,” said Murphy. In the past Murphy has been a fierce critic of the president.

“If they provide cover to Donald Trump for this, a clear violation of his role as president, we’re going to lose in Colorado with Cory Gardner. We’re going to lose Maine with Susan Collins. We’re going to lose Arizona with Martha McSally. And the Democrats will put the Senate very much in play.”

Privately Senate Republicans Are Much Less Sold On Opposing Impeachment

Trump impeachment trial: McConnell says Senate Republicans ...

Despite McConnell’s current stance against impeachment, Murphy said Senate Republicans are privately much less sold on opposing the impeachment effort.

“One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump,” he claimed.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi this week announced that the House would pursue impeachment after the revelation that Trump implied he wanted cooperation from Ukrainian officials in investigating Biden for his role in supporting the removal of a prosecutor would be tied to the release of a $400 million dollar aid package during a phone call with the new president of Ukraine in July.

The House appears to have enough votes to impeach Trump. In the Senate, however, his actual removal from office would require 67 votes, or support from at least 20 Republican Senators, assuming all 47 Democrats vote to remove.

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Trump Impeachment: Several Republicans To Join Democrats In House Vote

The US House of Representatives is deciding whether to impeach President Donald Trump over his role in last week’s storming of Congress.

Democrats accuse the president of encouraging his supporters to attack the Capitol building. Five people died.

Some in Mr Trump’s Republican party say they will join Democrats to impeach him on Wednesday, formally charging the president with inciting insurrection.

President Trump has rejected any responsibility for the violence.

The riot last Wednesday happened after Mr Trump told supporters at a rally in Washington DC to “fight like hell” against the result of November’s election.

As the House continued its debate, Mr Trump responded to the latest reports of planned protests, urging calm.

“I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind,” he said in statement released by the White House.

“That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for.

“I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.”

Factbox: Seven Republicans Vote To Convict Trump In Impeachment Trial

3 Min Read

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial on Saturday on a charge of inciting insurrection in a Jan. 6 speech to supporters just before hundreds of them stormed the U.S. Capitol.

While the majority of Republican senators sided with Trump and backed his acquittal, seven Republican senators joined the Democrats and voted to convict the Republican former president on the single charge. One of them, Richard Burr, had previously voted that the proceeding was unconstitutional because Trump left office on Jan. 20, a motion rejected by the Senate.

The Republicans Who Are Less Likely To Vote For Conviction But Could

According to the New York Times, there are about eight other Republicans who have yet to reveal how they’ll vote. All of them have previously supported dismissing the trial. These lawmakers could still be open to conviction, but they’re seen as less likely to vote for it given their backing for ending the trial itself.

These eight lawmakers are Sens. Rob Portman , Mitch McConnell , Richard Shelby , Todd Young , Mike Crapo , Jim Risch , Dan Sullivan , and Deb Fischer . Several of them have also indicated that they will weigh the evidence before issuing a final position, and some have previously questioned claims of election fraud, though it’s not clear that they’re willing to hold Trump accountable for them.

McConnell, for example, had previously told sources close to him that he believed what Trump had done to incite the insurrection was an impeachable offense, according to the Times. He hasn’t signaled how he’ll vote since, however, and was among the Republicans who voted to say the trial was unconstitutional.

“The trial hasn’t started yet. And I intend to participate in that and listen to the evidence,” McConnell recently told reporters.

McConnell is reportedly not whipping votes — or pressuring his members — to vote against conviction.

House Impeaches Trump A 2nd Time Citing Insurrection At Us Capitol

This vote could expose some of them to potential primary challenges from the right as well as possible safety threats, but for all of them Trump had simply gone too far. Multiple House Republicans said threats toward them and their families were factors weighing on their decisions on whether to impeach this president.

Ten out of 211 Republicans in the House is hardly an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and clearly, most Republicans’ sympathies still lie with Trump — and his ardent base of followers. But the 10 represent something significant — the most members of a president’s party to vote for his impeachment in U.S. history.

Where Republican Senators Stand On Trump’s 2nd Impeachment Trial

Democratic impeachment managers from the House of Representatives have spent this week laying out their case that former President Donald Trump incited the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. A vote is expected in the coming days on whether or not to convict him.

In earlier procedural votes, only a handful of Republicans broke with the former president. On Tuesday, six Republican senators joined with Democrats and voted that it was constitutional for Trump to be tried by the Senate despite no longer being in office.

A conviction will take a two-thirds Senate majority, or 67 votes. Democrats control only 50 seats in the chamber, however, and Trump is widely expected to be acquitted.

President Biden has largely avoided weighing in on the proceedings, but he offered Thursday morning that of GOP senators considering the evidence, “my guess is some minds may be changed.”

Here’s what some Republican senators are saying about the ongoing trial and the arguments from the Democratic impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers.


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