WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump supporters in the Senate on Sunday gathered around the former president before his impeachment trial, dismissing it as a waste of time and arguing that the former president’s ardent speech in the face of the U.S. Capitol insurrection does not hold him responsible for the January 6 violence.
“If being accountable means being charged by the House and being convicted by the Senate, the answer is no,” said Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, making clear his belief that Trump should be acquitted and will be acquitted. Asked if Congress could consider other punishments, such as censorship, Wicker said the Democratic-led House had that option before, but rejected it in favor of accusing it.
“This ship has sailed,” he said.
The Senate will launch the impeachment trial on Tuesday to consider the accusation that Trump’s fighting words to protesters at a Capitol rally, as well as weeks of falsehoods about a stolen and manipulated presidential election, prompted a crowd to storm the Capitol. Five people as a result of hand-to-hand combat, including a police officer.
Many senators, including Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, immediately denounced the violence and pointed a finger of blame at Trump. After the riot, Wicker said Americans “will not defend this kind of attack on the rule of law” and, without naming, said “we must persecute” those who undermine democracy.
But with Trump missing from the presidency, Republicans have shown little political appetite to take additional action, such as a dismissal conviction that could lead to him being prevented from running for office. These partisan divisions appear to be hardening before the Trump trial, a sign of his continued Republican Party takeover.
On Sunday, Wicker described Trump’s impeachment trial as a “partisan exercise in meaningless messaging.” When asked if Trump’s conduct should deserve more dismissal than that of President Bill Clinton, whom Wicker voted for, he said, “I do not allow President Trump to incite insurrection.” Clinton’s dismissal in 1998 was sparked by her false denial in the deposition of a sexual relationship with a White House inmate.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky dismissed Trump’s trial as a farce with “zero chances of conviction,” describing Trump’s words to protesters for “fighting like hell” as Congress voted to ratify Joe Biden’s presidential victory as “figurative” discourse.
“If we criminalize speech and somehow accuse everyone of saying,‘ Go fight to hear your voices, ’I really mean we should accuse Chuck Schumer,” Paul said, referring to the now leader of the Democratic Senate majority and his criticisms of Judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. “He went to the Supreme Court, stood in front of the Supreme Court and said specifically,‘ Hey Gorsuch, Hey Kavanaugh, you’ve unleashed a whirlwind. And you will pay the price. “
Paul noted that Chief Justice John Roberts had refused to preside over this week’s impeachment proceedings because Trump was no longer president. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy will preside over the trial as pro tempore president of the Senate.
“It’s a farce, it’s unconstitutional. But more than anything it is unwise and to divide the country, ”Paul said.
Last month, Paul forced a vote to set aside the trial as unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office, which legal experts say is debatable. But the vote suggested the near impossibility of reaching a conviction in a Senate where Democrats would have 50 seats, but it would take a two-thirds vote (or 67 senators) to condemn Trump. Forty-four Republican senators sided with Paul and voted to oppose an impeachment trial. Five Republican senators joined Democrats to reject Paul’s motion: Utah’s Mitt Romney, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, and Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey.
Some Republicans have said the vote does not “bind” them to vote in a particular way out of conviction, and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana said Sunday he would listen carefully to the evidence. But even the sharpest critics of Trump on Sunday acknowledged the expected result.
“You voted 45 Republican senators to suggest that they didn’t think it was appropriate to hold a trial, so you can deduce the likelihood that these people will vote to convict,” said Toomey, who has made it clear that he believes Trump committed “crimes. imputable “.
“I still think the best result would have been for the president to resign” before he left office, he said. “Obviously, he chose not to do that.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, said he believed Trump’s actions were wrong and that “he will have a place in history for all of this,” but insisted it is not the job of the Senate Judge.
“It’s not about how the trial ends, it’s about when it ends,” Graham said. “Republicans will see this as an unconstitutional exercise and the only question is: will they call witnesses, how long will the trial last? But the outcome is not really questioned.”
Wicker spoke on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” Toomey appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” and Graham on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.