Rand Paul and the Republican Senate nearly dismissed the impeachment trial on Tuesday when all but five Republicans voted with Paul to declare the upcoming trial unconstitutional.
The Senate vote was 55-45 to set Paul’s motion aside, but it was a clear sign that the Senate will not likely vote to impeach Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol.
Ahead of the vote, Rand Paul said he wanted to put his colleagues on the record.
Several GOP senators said heading into the vote that they hadn’t made a decision on how they would vote, hadn’t talked to Paul or, until they saw Tuesday’s Senate floor schedule, didn’t know he would force the vote.
The five who voted with Democrats:
- Mitt Romney
- Ben Sasse
- Lisa Murkowski
- Susan Collins
- Pat Toomey
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted with Republicans.
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, is said to believe Mr. Trump committed impeachable offenses surrounding the deadly Capitol siege, had asserted that the former president “provoked” the mob, and had said he was undecided on the charge. Yet he voted with the vast majority of the party to uphold the constitutional challenge, which would have effectively terminated the trial if it had prevailed. His entire leadership team joined him.
New York Times
from The Hill