Impeachment: Democrats ‘worst miscalculation’ helps Donald Trump’s re-election

Bitter recriminations as Democrats fall well short of votes needed to remove Donald Trump from office.

Democrats have been accused of helping Donald Trump’s re-election chances with “the worst miscalculation” in US political history following his historic acquittal by the Senate.

The claims came amid bitter recriminations from both Republicans and Democrats after the most partisan and divisive impeachment ever ended in the easy acquittal of the president in the nation’s third ever impeachment trial.

When the cries of “not guilty” and ‘guilty’ from Senators ended, they had voted 52–48 to acquit Mr Trump on abuse of power and 53–47 to acquit him for obstruction of Congress.

Chief Justice John Roberts then declared that America’s 45th president “be, and is hereby, acquitted of the charges.”

The acquittal vote was almost completely along party lines but the president was denied his hope of a unanimous verdict among Republicans when Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, voted to convict the president for abuse of power.

“The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” Senator Romney said on the Senate floor shortly before the final vote. “What the president did was wrong, grievously wrong.”

After the acquittal vote Mr Trump tweeted a video portraying him as president for all time and said he would make a public statement early Friday (4amAEDT) “to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax.”

pic.twitter.com/JDS4zUXXJG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2020

Mr Trump’s hopes of enticing a Democrat to acquit him also failed when a leading moderate Senator Joe Manchin, from the pro-Trump state of West Virginia, announced he would vote to convict the president after “agonising” about it for days.

“Voting whether or not to remove a sitting President has been a truly difficult decision, and after listening to the arguments presented by both sides, I have reached my conclusion reluctantly,” said Senator Manchin. “For the reasons above I must vote yes on the articles of impeachment. I take no pleasure in these votes, and am saddened this is the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.”

The final votes fell far short of the two-third majority, or 67 votes, that were needed to convict Mr Trump and remove him from office.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell gives a thumbs up at the conclusion of the day during the impeachment trial of the US President. Picture: AFP

Brad Parscale, Mr Trump’s presidential campaign manager said the impeachment saga would help Mr Trump’s re-election chances and that his campaign “only got bigger and stronger as a result of this nonsense.”

He said the impeachment “will go down as the worst miscalculation in American political history.”

“President Trump has been totally vindicated and it’s now time to get back to the business of the American people,” Mr Parscale said. “The do-nothing Democrats know they can’t beat him, so they had to impeach him.”

Today, the Senate rightfully acquitted President Trump.

The Democrats failed in their effort to erase the will of 63 million American voters & further divided our country.

This impeachment charade lasted 178 days & wasted MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars.

— GOP (@GOP) February 5, 2020

Although polls show that the four month impeachment saga has had only a modest impact on public opinion, Mr Trump’s approval ratings are at the highest level since he took office.

National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Emmer said the acquittal “should finally slam the door on the sick obsession these socialist Democrats have with harassing President Trump and his family,”

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said the decision would end the “attack on our institutions” which Democrats had launched because they could not accept the verdict of the people at the ballot box.

“We will reject this incoherent case that comes nowhere near justifying the first president removal in history,’ he told the Senate shortly before the vote.

“This is precisely the kind of recklessness the Senate was created to stop … we simply cannot let factional fever break our institutions.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer prepares to speak to the media after the acquittal verdict. Picture; AFP.

Democrat Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer told the Senate the trial was a “sham” and that Americans would see through its decision to acquit Mr Trump.

“The verdict of this kangaroo court will be meaningless,” Senator Schumer said. “The Republican majority refused to get the evidence because they were afraid of what it might show.

“You cannot be on the side of this president and be on the side of truth.” he said. “And if we are to survive as a nation, we must be on the side of truth.”

The acquittal, which follows similar Senate acquittals of Bill Clinton in 1999 and Andrew Johnson in 1868, means that no president as ever been removed from office by impeachment.

However Richard Nixon resigned as president in 1974 before the House could impeach him after being told his impeachment and conviction were inevitable.

The easy acquittal of the president after a short trial by the Republican-controlled Senate was another example of the highly partisan nature of this impeachment.

The Democrat-controlled House initiated the process in September, eventually impeaching the president along party lines in December for using US military aid to Ukraine to pressure that government into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The House then charged Mr Trump with obstruction of Congress for blocking witnesses and documents during the House impeachment inquiry.

Mr Trump has denied all along that he did anything wrong and has accused the Democrats of mounting a sham political witch hunt to overturn his election victory in 2016.

Democrats allege that Mr Trump’s actions amount to the “high crimes and misdemeanours” specified in the Constitution as a reason to impeach a president and remove him from office.

Democrats also alleged that the Senate trial was not a fair trial because Senators voted to block the introduction of new witnesses and new evidence.

Several Republican Senators were critical of the president’s actions with the Ukraine but argued that his wrongdoing did not rise to the level that would justify his removal from office.

“The president’s actions were shameful and wrong. His personal interests do not take precedence over those of this great nation,” the moderate Republican Senator from Alaska Lisa Murkowski said. But she added: “I cannot vote to convict. The Constitution provides for impeachment but does not demand it in all instances.”

Another moderate Republican, Senator Susan Collins, who voted along with Senator Romney for new witnesses during the trial, also decided to vote for acquittal.

“I do not believe that the House has met its burden of showing that the president’s conduct, however flawed, warrants the extreme step of immediate removal from office,’ she said.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia