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WASHINGTON (AP) – Growing number of Republican senators say they oppose impeachment trial, a sign of the diminished chances that former President Donald Trump will be convicted of the charge that he instigated a siege on the US Capitol.
House Democrats, who will bring the ‘incitement to insurgency’ impeachment charge to the Senate on Monday night, hope strong Republican denunciations of Trump after the Jan.6 riot will result in conviction and a vote separated to ban Trump from holding office again. But the GOP’s passions appear to have cooled since the insurgency, and now that Trump’s presidency is over, the Republican senators who will serve as jurors in the trial are rallying to his legal defense, as they did in his first impeachment trial last year.
“I think the trial is stupid, I think it is counterproductive,” said Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla. He said that “the first chance I have to vote to end this trial I will do “because he believes it would be bad for the country and further inflame partisan divisions.
Arguments in the Senate trial will begin the week of February 8. Leaders on both sides agreed to the short deadline to give Trump’s team and House prosecutors time to prepare and the Senate a chance to confirm some of President Joe Biden’s cabinet candidates. Democrats say the extra days will allow more evidence to emerge from the riots by Trump supporters that interrupted Congressional electoral tally of Biden’s election victory, while Republicans hope to develop a unified defense for Trump.
An early vote to dismiss the lawsuit would likely not succeed, given that Democrats now control the Senate. Yet the Republican opposition indicates that many GOP senators would ultimately vote to acquit Trump. Democrats would need the support of 17 Republicans – a high bar – to condemn him.
When the House impeached Trump on January 13, exactly one week after the siege, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Said he did not believe the Senate had the constitutional power to condemn Trump after he left. Cotton said on Sunday that “the more I talk to other Republican senators, the more they begin to line up” behind that argument.
“I think a lot of Americans are going to think it’s strange that the Senate is spending its time trying to convict and remove from office a man who stepped down a week ago,” Cotton said.
Democrats reject this argument, pointing to the 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who had already resigned and the opinions of many jurists. Democrats also say that an account of the first invasion of Capitol Hill since the War of 1812, carried out by rioters pushed by a president who told them to “fight like hell” against the election results which were being counted in time, is necessary then the country can move forward and guarantee that such a siege does not happen again.
A few GOP senators agree with the Democrats, but not close to the number that will be needed to condemn Trump.
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he believes there is a “preponderance of opinion” that an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.
“I believe that what is alleged and what we have seen, which is an incitement to insurgency, is an ungodly offense,” Romney said. “Otherwise, what is it?”
But Romney, the only Republican to vote to convict Trump when the Senate acquitted the then president in last year’s trial, appears to be an outlier.
Senator Mike Rounds, RS.D., said he thought a trial was a “moot point” after a president’s term ended, “and I think that’s a time when they would have a lot hard to try to get done in the Senate. . ”
And Sen. John Cornyn, of R-Texas, tweeted on Saturday: “If it’s a good idea to impeach and try former presidents, what about former Democratic presidents when Republicans get a majority in 2022? Think about it and let’s do what’s best for the country. ”
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of Trump who helped him build a legal team, on Friday urged the Senate to reject the idea of a post-presidential trial – potentially with a vote to dismiss the charge – and suggested Republicans will take a close look at whether Trump’s words on Jan.6 were legally “incitement.”
Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Said Democrats were sending a message that “Donald Trump’s hatred and vitriol is so strong” that they will hold a trial that keeps Biden’s political priorities from moving. Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Has suggested that Democrats choose ‘revenge’ over national security as the new president tries to set up his administration.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who said last week that Trump “provoked” supporters before the riot, has not said how he would vote or argued legal strategies. The Kentucky senator told his GOP colleagues it would be a vote of conscience.
One of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s nine impeachers said Trump’s encouragement to his loyalists before the riot was “an extremely heinous presidential crime.”
“I think you’ll see we’re going to put together a case that is so compelling because the facts and the law reveal what this president did,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa. “I mean, think back. Just two and a half weeks ago, the president gathered a crowd on the White House ellipse. He prompted them with his words. And then he lit the match.
Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and halted the election count, mistakenly claiming that there was massive election fraud and that it was stolen by Biden. Trump’s claims have been categorically rejected by the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump and by state election officials.
Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., Said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday that he hopes the evolving clarity on the details of what happened on January 6 “will make it clearer to my colleagues and the American people what we need. some responsibility. ”
Coons wondered how his colleagues who were on Capitol Hill that day could see the insurgency as anything other than a “staggering violation” of the centuries-old tradition of peaceful transfers of power.
“This is a critical moment in American history and we have to watch it and watch it carefully,” Coons said.
Rubio and Romney were on “Fox News Sunday,” Cotton appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” and Romney was also on CNN’s “State of the Union,” as was Dean. Rounds was interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
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Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.
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