Trump opens door to 2024 White House run after Senate acquittal
The trial verdict means the former president can run for the White House again in 2024 despite seven Republican senators finding him guilty of inciting an insurrection.
Donald Trump has hinted at a political comeback after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial of inciting an insurrection for his role in the deadly Capitol riots.
Forty-three Republican senators voted on Sunday AEDT to acquit the former president, with 57 senators finding him guilty, short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict.
Seven Republicans broke ranks to vote alongside Democrats, reflecting the divisions in the party over Mr Trump’s role in the Capitol riots on January 6 that left five people dead.
The Senate trial lasting just five days — the shortest on record — leaving Mr Trump as the first president to be .impeached and acquitted twice.
The verdict means Mr Trump can run for president again in 2024, something he hinted at in a statement issued from his Mar-a-Lago resort after the decision.
“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead, I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,” he said.
Mr Trump thanked senators for standing up for the constitution and said he had been the victim of a political vendetta by Democrats.
“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. No president has ever gone through anything like it, and it continues because our opponents cannot forget the almost 75 million people, the highest number ever for a sitting president, who voted for us just a few short months ago.
“It is a sad commentary on our times that one political party in America is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law, defame law enforcement, cheer mobs, excuse rioters, and transform justice into a tool of political vengeance, and persecute, blacklist, cancel and suppress all people and viewpoints with whom or which they disagree.”
Democrat House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi attacked Senate Republicans, accusing them of putting their own political careers ahead of the constitution in choosing to side with Mr Trump. “What we saw in that Senate today was a cowardly group of Republicans who apparently have no options, because they were afraid to defend their job, respect the institution in which they serve,” Ms Pelosi said.
“ … What is so important about any one of us? What is so important about the political survival of any one of us than the constitution we have sworn to protect and defend?”
The seven Republican senators who voted to convict the former president were Richard Burr, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Patrick Toomey.
“The facts are clear,” said Senator Burr. “ The evidence is compelling that president Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanours. Therefore, I have voted to convict.”
The number of Republican defectors was 10 short of what the Democrats needed to convict Mr Trump and bar him from running for office again. In a sign of the conflicted state of some Republicans over the impeachment, former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell delivered a searing indictment of Mr Trump, despite voting to acquit him on the grounds that a trial was unconstitutional. “There’s no question — none — that president Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” Senator McConnell said.
“Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the house. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice-president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.”
Senator McConnell also argued that the Senate could not try a president once had left office.
“This body is not invited to act as the nation’s overarching moral tribunal. We’re not free to work backward from whether the accused party might personally deserve some kind of punishment,” he said.
The final day of the trial had an unexpected twist when house impeachment managers unexpectedly pushed for witnesses to be called, only to later retreat. Their move followed claims by Republican representative Jaime Herrera Beutler that she was told that Mr Trump was siding with the rioters as the Capitol was being stormed.
Ms Beutler claimed she had been told this by Republican house minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who had been talking with the president during the attack. The calling of witnesses would have extended the trial for weeks, but Democrats eventually backed away from their demands after it was agreed that Ms Beutler could issue a statement of her claims instead.
In their closing arguments, Democrat managers accused the former president of inciting the insurrection by urging his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell” on the basis of the “big lie” that the election was stolen from him. “He named the date. He named the time. He brought them here, and now he must pay the price,” lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said
Mr Trump’s lawyers countered that the trial was an unconstitutional “sham impeachment’ against a private citizen, which was pursued by Democrats driven by a “impeachment lust” and a hatred for Trump.
“It is time to bring this unconstitutional political theatre to an end,” lawyer Michael van der Veen said. “In short, this impeachment has been a complete charade from beginning to end; the entire spectacle … has been nothing but the unhinged pursuit of a long-standing political vendetta against Mr Trump by the opposition party.”
President Joe Biden said despite Mr Trump’s acquittal the charges against him were not in dispute and the attack shows “democracy is fragile”.
“While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute,” Mr Biden said.“This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant.”
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