Impeachment verdict live: U.S. Senate acquits President Donald Trump on both impeachment charges
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was acquitted on Wednesday in his U.S. Senate impeachment trial, saved by fellow Republicans who rallied to protect him nine months before he asks voters in a deeply divided America to give him a second White House term.
On each of the two charges, the senators stood at their desks on the Senate floor to vote one by one, with U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts presiding. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans engineered a stripped-down trial with no witnesses or new evidence. Democrats called the trial a sham and a cover-up. Trump called the impeachment an attempted coup and a Democratic attempt to annul his 2016 election victory.
Trump faces no serious challengers for his party’s presidential nomination. He is poised to claim the nomination at the party’s convention in August and previewed in his State of the Union address on Tuesday campaign themes such as American renewal, economic vitality and hardline immigration policies.
McConnell, speaking to reporters after the vote, accused Democrats of using the impeachment trial to try to gain an advantage in winning control of the Senate in November, but called the effort “a colossal political mistake.” He also said he was “surprised and disappointed” by Romney’s vote. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said Trump’s acquittal in an unfair trial was worth nothing.
The trial formally began on Jan. 16. The Senate voted 51-49 last Friday to defeat the Democrats’ bid to call witnesses such as Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, with only two Republicans joining them.
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