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If the House passes articles of impeachment this week against President Trump for the second time in his unique term, the Senate will try him and decide whether to remove him and disqualify him from office again. the indictment article accuses the president of incitement to insurgency, after inciting supporters last week to “fight like hell” before they stormed the Capitol, leading to the deaths of six people and the evacuation of the Congress.
New Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, has indicated that he wants an impeachment trial to begin immediately after the Senate receives the impeachment article.
Most Democratic senators are calling for the immediate removal of Mr. Trump, including the two independent members of the Senate, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But the bar for the Senate to remove the president is higher than impeachment, which only requires a simple majority in the House.
Two-thirds of the Senate – 67 senators – are needed to convict. CBS News asked the current 51 GOP senators how they would vote. Twenty responded.
A Republican, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, has embraced the idea of Mr. Trump’s early departure from office and believes he should step down. But while he believes the president has committed “unforgivable offenses,” Toomey is not sure whether it is “practical” to remove him from office days before the end, he told NBC News “Meet the Press”.
The remaining 19 respondents responded with statements, referred to past press interviews, or declined to comment.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney was the only Republican senator to vote to impeach Trump on one of two impeachment charges in February 2020. Following the January 6 attacks, he told the Senate that the objections and attacks were the result of “a selfish man. the hurt pride and indignation of supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed over the past two months.”
In a statement Wednesday, he said that “when the president incites an attack on Congress, there must be a significant consequence”.
“We will be looking at these options and the best course for our nation in the days to come,” he added.
Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Ben Sasse of Nebraska are also not closing the door on impeachment, according to statements to CBS News. Sasse said last week on “CBS This Morning” that he would “certainly consider the articles” the House proposes. A spokeswoman for Collins said she would not comment on the impeachment “because of the Senate’s constitutional role in these proceedings, which includes serving as a jury.”
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said Mr. Trump “has not shown good leadership” and “bears some responsibility for what happened.”
Nine Senators told CBS News they did not support impeachment: Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Steve Daines of Montana, Kevin Cramer of Dakota from North, Tim Scott from South Carolina and Ted Cruz from Texas.
Others said there was no time to impeach Mr. Trump because the new Biden-Harris administration will take office in a matter of days, and they predicted an impeachment process would be divisive.
“Is there any likelihood that he can be fired by January 20?” Missouri Senator Roy Blunt said on Face the Nation. “If there is no further event to follow, my – my belief is that there is no possibility of it.”
Impeachment is “a partisan exercise that will further bitter and divide the country,” Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who voted to accept the Electoral College results Jan. 6, said on WDRB.
A handful of Republican senators voted to oppose the electoral college results in Arizona and Pennsylvania on the day of the Capitol storm: Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Hyde-Smith, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Cruz. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Loomis and Florida Senator Rick Scott did not vote for the objection in Arizona, but did for Pennsylvania. Louisiana Senator John Kennedy voted to oppose the results in Arizona, but did not for Pennsylvania.
Scott, who chairs the Republican National Senate Committee, did not disclose his position on impeachment when asked. Instead, he spoke out against the Capitol riots and urged Mr. Trump to reconsider his decision to skip the inauguration.
The other Florida senator, Marco Rubio, dismissed the impeachment, telling “Fox News Sunday” that it would mean that President-elect Biden’s first weeks would be to “remove a president who is not already in office” .
Here is the list of GOP Senators and what they said about the impeachment vote:
Would consider
- Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)
- Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
- Mitt Romney (Utah)
To oppose
- Marco Rubio (Florida)
- Rand Paul (Kentucky)
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi)
- Roger Wicker (Mississippi)
- Roy Blunt (Missouri)
- Steve Daines (Montana)
- Kevin Cramer (North Dakota)
- Tim Scott (South Carolina)
- Ted Cruz (Texas)
Responded but declined to say what the vote would be
- Mike Crapo (Idaho)
- Susan Collins (Maine)
- Joni Ernst (Iowa)
- Todd Young (Indiana)
- Rick Scott (Florida)
- Jim Risch (Idaho)
- John Cornyn (Texas)
- Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming)
Did not respond to CBS News request for comment
- Richard Shelby (Alabama)
- Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)
- Daniel Sullivan (Alaska)
- Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
- John Boozman (Arkansas)
- Tom Cotton (Arkansas)
- Kelly Loeffler (Georgia)
- Mike Braun (Indiana)
- Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
- Roger Marshall (Kansas)
- Jerry Moran (Kansas)
- Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)
- Bill Cassidy (Louisiana)
- John Kennedy (Louisiana)
- Josh Hawley (Missouri)
- Deb Fischer (Nebraska)
- Richard Burr (North Carolina)
- Thom Tillis (North Carolina)
- John Hoeven (North Dakota)
- Rob Portman (Ohio)
- Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)
- James Lankford (Oklahoma)
- Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)
- Mike Rounds (South Dakota)
- John Thune (South Dakota)
- Bill Hagerty (Tennessee)
- Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee)
- Mike Lee (Utah)
- Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia)
- Ron Johnson (Wisconsin)
- John Barrasso (Wyoming)
Alan He, Bo Erickson, Cara Korte, John Nolen, Timothy Perry and Sarah Ewall-Wice contributed reporting for this story
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