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Paul’s motion was killed by a 55-45 vote, with five Republicans joining all Democrats, meaning 45 Republicans voted for Paul’s effort. Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania crossed party lines to vote with the Democrats.
In order to convict Trump during his trial, at least 17 Republicans will need to vote with all Democrats when the trial begins next month. Significantly, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Paul in the vote – a potential indicator that it is appropriate to the constitutionality of impeaching a former president is in question.
Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told reporters earlier today: “I think there will be enough (votes) to show that more than a third of the Senate thinks the whole process is unconstitutional, which will show that at the end of the day, they don’t. have the votes for impeachment. ”
The Democratic-led House has already voted to impeach Trump, accusing him of inciting an insurgency for the attack on Capitol Hill that left several dead. But two-thirds of the Senate are expected to vote to convict Trump after a trial, an extremely high bar to cross.
Tuesday’s Senate vote effectively allowed senators to formally declare whether they believe a trial of a former president is constitutional. Given the limited language in the Constitution on impeachment, legal experts disagree on whether the Senate can convict a former president. But Democrats have singled out lawyers on both ends of the political spectrum who say a trial is constitutional.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said earlier Tuesday of the possibility that Paul could force the vote, “he has a wealth of very unusual ideas.”
Paul said in a speech before the vote: “I want this organ registered, every last person here: do you think politics should be?”
“Democrats insist on applying an incentive test to a Republican that they refuse to apply to themselves,” he said. “I want Democrats to raise their hands if they’ve ever given a speech that says ‘take back’, ‘fight for your country’, who hasn’t used the words fight figuratively?”
He went on to say, “Are we going to put all the politicians in jail – are we going to remove all the politicians who used the words fight figuratively in a speech?” Shame!
This story was updated with additional developments on Tuesday.
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