WASHINGTON: The US Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell revealed on Saturday that he will vote against convicting Donald Trump, US media reported, as the impeachment trial of the former president nears its conclusion with a likely acquittal.
While describing the vote on whether to convict as a “close call,” he told colleagues in a letter that “I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction,” according to Politico which obtained a copy of the message.
“I will vote to acquit,” McConnell added.
The revelation leaves it highly likely that the Senate will fail to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to convict Trump on the single charge of incitement of insurrection for his role in whipping up a mob that besieged the US Capitol on January 6.
With the Senate split 50-50, 17 Republicans would need to defect from the former president in order to reach a conviction.
McConnell remains hugely influential within his party, however, and his acquittal vote will carry weight.
But the top Republican, who broke with the president in December over Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen, signalled in his letter that he does not believe Trump is innocent of wrongdoing.
“The Constitution makes perfectly clear that presidential criminal misconduct while in office can be prosecuted after the president has left office, which in my view alleviates the otherwise troubling ‘January exception argument raised by the House,” McConnell said according to Politico.
House impeachment managers have warned that acquitting Trump would open the door for future presidents to violate their office in the final weeks of their presidency and suffer no accountability.
Much of this week’s trial focused on how much Trump knew about the rioters’ actions as they rampaged through Congress on Jan. 6 seeking to prevent lawmakers from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.
Herrera Beutler, one of 10 in her party who voted last month in the House of Representatives to impeach Trump, recounted in a statement late on Friday the details of a call between Trump and the top House Republican, Kevin McCarthy.
“’Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,’” Beutler quoted Trump as saying. She said Trump initially denied his supporters were involved in the attack, claiming the mob were members of the left-leaning Antifa movement, a false claim that McCarthy rejected.
Trump, who left office on January 20, is the first US president to be impeached twice and the first to face trial after leaving office. If convicted, the Senate could then vote to bar him from running for office again.
Conviction is seen as unlikely, however, as at least 17 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber would have to join all 50 Democrats to find the former president guilty. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell will vote to acquit Trump, a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday.
The Senate is expected to convene at 10 am, and a final vote could come as early as Saturday afternoon, though a call for witnesses could delay that.
The trial has highlighted the extraordinary danger lawmakers faced on January 6, when
Trump urged his followers to march on the Capitol and “get wild” in an effort to overturn his election loss. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
