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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana joined Democrats in voting against ending Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, a surprise reversal that Cassidy said was a response to lawyers for the former president doing “a terrible job” of argumentation. their case.
Cassidy was among six Republican senators who sided with the Democrats on whether a former president can stand trial after he leaves office. The Louisiana senator’s position was a change from January, when he voted to end the proceedings on the grounds that they were unconstitutional.
The vote drew fierce criticism from Republicans in the senator’s deeply conservative state. But Cassidy said Trump’s lawyers haven’t argued their case. While those responsible for impeaching the Democrats were “focused, they were organized,” building on precedents and legal scholars, Trump’s team “was disorganized, random, had nothing,” he said. -he declares.
“They talked about a lot of things, but they didn’t talk about the issue in question,” Cassidy said after the vote.
Still, the senator said his decision to go ahead with the trial should not be taken as a sign that he would later vote to convict the former president. In recent calls with reporters, including on a Tuesday morning, Cassidy declined to say whether he believed Trump had committed an impenetrable offense.
“I have not yet decided how I will vote,” he said.
Trump is the first president to face impeachment charges after leaving office. The House accused him of instigating an insurgency for his role in the Jan.6 siege on the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds of rioters ransacked the building in an attempt to stop Democrat Joe Biden’s certification of victory, a nationwide attack on the country’s seat of government unlike any in its history. Five people died.
The Louisiana Republican Party quickly released a statement Tuesday criticizing Cassidy for his vote and praising Louisiana GOP Junior Senator John Kennedy for voting against continuing the impeachment trial. The Louisiana GOP said it was “deeply disappointed” with Cassidy’s vote.
“We believe that a trial for the impeachment of a private citizen is not only an unconstitutional act, but also an attack on the very foundations of American democracy, which will have profound and unforeseen consequences for our republic,” said the party press release.
Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana said he was “surprised” by Cassidy’s vote and suggested it caused a stir in their ruby red state.
“I haven’t spoken to him, but I can tell you a lot of people back home are calling me about this right now,” Johnson said.
Cassidy was re-elected this fall to a six-year term, giving him time to make amends with his party. But he has already been criticized for accepting the constituency vote for Biden and for acknowledging the Democratic president’s victory weeks before many of his colleagues.
A local Republican women’s club sent Cassidy a letter in December telling her they felt “betrayed” after she said Biden won the presidential election.
Kennedy, who is due for re-election next year, issued statements calling the impeachment trial unconstitutional and calling it a “thinly veiled effort on the part of our country’s ultra-elites, who despise most Americans. , to further disparage the people who chose to vote for President Trump and not vote for President Biden.
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PA Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
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