The head of the Senate no longer supports Donald Trump | Tra …

The leader of the Republican majority in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell told colleagues Trump committed impeachment offenses, as reported by the newspaper The New York Times. McConnelll, who followed Trump in his first impeachment trial just over a year ago, is now open to impeachment of the president who prompted the assault on the capital last week that left a balance of five. the dead.

Shortly after the vote in the House of Representatives which ended with 232 votes in favor – 10 of them were Republican votes – and 197 votes against, McConnell reported that impeachment could not begin until January 19, when the Senate resumes its sessions. A day later, Biden’s inauguration will take place and Democrats will have a majority in the Senate where McConnell currently leads the Republican majority. Another problem that arises in view of impeachment is the possibility of disqualifying President Trump and preventing him from having a second term in the future. This could happen after the impeachment trial. There are no precedents, Trump would be the first president in US history to be banned from re-occupying the White House.

To find Trump guilty, at least 17 of the 50 Republican senators will join the 50 Democrats to achieve the required two-thirds majority. However, “the majority of Republican senators have not released a public position on impeachment,” as reported The New York Times. Some have spoken, such as the case of Rob Portman, a senator from the State of Ohio, who published in an official statement via Twitter his position regarding the vote that took place in the House of Representatives to conduct the trial of dismissal of the outgoing agent. “The attack on the American capital was an attack on democracy itself and the president has some responsibility for what happened” written in the statement.

Additionally, McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao was one of the first Trump cabinet officials to step down after what happened in the capital on January 6. Chao had been in charge of Trump’s transportation secretary since 2017.

Mitch McConnell also referred to statements by President-elect Joe Biden who suggested the fastest way to change presidency would be upon his inauguration on January 20. In the same statement, the Kentucky senator explained that “There is no possibility of concluding a fair and serious trial before President-elect Biden is sworn in”. In addition, he recalled that the three political trials carried out in the history of the country lasted “respectively 86, 37 and 21 days” in reference to the trials of former presidents Andrew Johnson (1868), Bill Clinton (1998) and Donald Trump (2019). Republican Richard Nixon, for his part, resigned before the impeachment process against him was carried out.

“Although the media has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on my vote and intend to hear the legal arguments when they are presented in the Senate,” McConnell said in a message to his colleagues in the Republican Party. As reported The New York Times, Several senior officials from the so-called “big old party” (GOP) said it was “too early to determine whether a critical mass of Republican senators will vote to punish Trump for his role in inciting a violent mob to his followers stormed and vandalized the Capitol, leaving five dead ”.

However, the punishment came earlier for some Republican lawmakers to which the private company decided to withdraw its donations after trying last week to block Biden’s confirmation. Companies like American Express, Best Buy, Amazon, hotelier Marriot and telecom conglomerate AT&T have suspended donations to lawmakers who opposed President-elect Joe Biden’s certification. On the other hand, Trump lost New York as a client, according to Governor Bill De Blasio in a tweet in which he criticized the attack on the capital, “New York City doesn’t do business with insurgents.” The governor has confirmed that he will end agreements allowing the Trump organization to operate the Ferry Point golf course, Wollman and Lasker rinks and the Central Park carousel.

Likewise, mounting polls confirm a resounding disapproval of the assault on the capital, prompted hours earlier by President Trump after speaking for about an hour in a speech in which he repeated the word “struggle.” »Ten times. The American University of Quinnipiac conducted a survey in which un 74% said democracy in the United States is under threat. A 56% accused Trump of violence last Wednesday.