WASHINGTON (AP) – Most Senate jurors have said they will hear evidence of Donald Trump’s historic second trial of impeachment, but most minds probably decided before the trial began. Democrats would need a minimum of 17 Republicans to vote with them to condemn Trump for inciting insurrection, and that seems unlikely.
Still, Democrats say they hold out hope of winning enough Republicans to condemn the former president for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, in which five people died. If Trump were convicted, the Senate could get a second ballot to ban him from running again. A final vote is likely to be on Saturday.
Here’s a review of the Republicans that Democrats are looking at as they present final arguments in the case:
THE FREQUENT CRITICISM OF TRUMP
Republican Ms. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine have made it clear that they believe Trump caused the riots on Jan. 6. he teamed up with Democrats twice to vote against Republican Party efforts to dismiss the trial.
Collins said after the riots that Trump “has a responsibility to work the crowd and incite that crowd.” Murkowski asked Trump to resign after the attack on the Capitol, telling a local newspaper three days later that “I want him out. He has caused enough damage.”
Romney tweeted on Jan. 6: “What happened today at the U.S. Capitol was an insurrection, incited by the president of the United States.” During the trial, Democrats showed a video of Romney escaping from the mob, redirected by a Capitol police officer as he unknowingly ran toward the violent crowd.
Sasse said Trump had “lied” to the Americans and that “the consequences now lie in five Americans killed and in a ruined Capitol building.” In a recent video, he said Republican politics should not be about “the strange cult of a man.”
Murkowski, Collins and Sasse voted to acquit Trump during his first impeachment process, in which Democrats accused him of abusing his instant power by the Ukrainian president to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Romney was the only guilty vote of the Republican Party, leaving Democrats far from being convicted.
CAP CAP CAP
Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring from the Senate in 2022, has also voted twice with Democrats to move forward with the trial. Like Murkowski, he called for Trump’s resignation after the riots, saying that would be the best way to “bring that person to the rearview mirror.” Toomey had also aggressively rejected Trump’s false claims that he had won Pennsylvania and other states in the election.
Three other Republican senators have said they will not run again in two years, which may set them free to vote against Trump and voters from the base of anger: Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Sen. North Carolina, Richard Burr, and Alabama Senator Richard Shelby. The three voted to dismiss the trial, but Portman says he still has an open mind about the conviction.
Burr said Thursday he would not comment on the trial. Shelby said this week that impeachment managers had a “strong point” that Trump could have acted on earlier to stop the violence, but said the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is out of office.
CASSIDY AS A WILD CARD
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who won re-election by a large margin in 2020, voted two weeks ago for a Republican Party effort to fire the trial. But he changed his vote this week, saying Trump’s lawyers had done a “terrible” job of making the trial unconstitutional.
Cassidy, who has been taking extensive notes throughout the trial, said Friday that managers had posed some “intriguing questions” during their two days of arguments. He said he hoped Trump’s lawyers would answer them thoroughly and that he was “trying to address it objectively.”
During the question and answer session of the trial Friday afternoon, Cassidy asked Trump’s attorneys about a conversation the then president had with Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Jan. 6 just after Vice President Mike Pence would have been evacuated from the Senate. Tuberville said he told Trump Pence had been removed, making it clear that Trump probably knew of the danger at the time, though he later tweeted criticism of Pence for not trying to overturn the election. Cassidy asked attorneys if this proved that Trump “was tolerant of Vice President Pence’s intimidation?”
Lawyer Michael van der Veen dismissed Tuberville’s account as “rumors,” a response Cassidy later said was not enough.
THUNE TAKES TRUMP HEAT
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, rejected Trump’s attempts to challenge the certification of President Biden’s election victory. He predicted that the effort would “go down like a shot dog” in the Senate.
This comment provoked a furious response from the former president, who urged Gov. Kristi Noem to run against Thune in the Republican Party primaries, an idea she immediately rejected.
Still, Thune has voted twice to dismiss the case. He said Friday that he kept an open mind and indicated he could be open to a censorship resolution if Trump is acquitted.
“I know a couple of colleagues who have seen a couple of resolutions, at least, that I think could attract some support,” Thune said.
EYES ON McCONNELL
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has twice voted to remove the trial, indicating he will eventually vote by acquittal. But he also said Trump “provoked” the crowd, which was “fed with lies.”
Shortly after the attack, McConnell privately told associates he had ended Trump and said publicly that he was undecided about the impeachment. He told Republicans the decision on Trump’s guilt is a vote of conscience.
His neutral stance contrasts with his management of the first trial, when he largely protected Trump and backed away from Democrats’ requests to call witnesses.
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