The Senate acquitted President Trump on Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress, as Republicans turned back an election-year attempt by House Democrats to remove him from office for pressuring a foreign power to incriminate his political rivals.

The tally for conviction fell far below the 67-vote threshold necessary for removal and neither article of impeachment garnered even a simple majority. The first article, abuse of power, was rejected 48 to 52, and the second, obstruction of Congress, was defeated 47 to 53. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, was the only member to break with his party, voting to remove Mr. Trump from office.

The votes, ending the third presidential impeachment trial in American history, were a resounding victory for Mr. Trump after five months of blaring scandal over Ukraine that embroiled Washington and threatened his presidency. But both sides agreed that the final judgment on Mr. Trump will be rendered by voters when they cast ballots in just nine months.



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Romney voted to convict Trump of abuse of power, the first Republican to support removing the president.
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Romney Says He Will Vote to Convict Trump
During a statement to his colleagues, Senator Mitt Romney said he would vote to convict President Trump of abuse of power, becoming the first Republican to break party ranks.
In the last several weeks I’ve received numerous calls and texts. Many demanded in their words that I stand with the team. I can assure you that thought has been very much on my mind. You see, I support a great deal of what the president has done. I’ve voted with him 80 percent of the time. But my promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and political biases aside. Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me, for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history’s rebuke and the censure of my own conscience. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong. So the verdict is ours to render under our Constitution. The people will judge us for how well and faithfully we fulfill our duty. The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did.


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Romney Says He Will Vote to Convict Trump
During a statement to his colleagues, Senator Mitt Romney said he would vote to convict President Trump of abuse of power, becoming the first Republican to break party ranks.CreditCredit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah voted to convict President Trump on one of the two impeachment charges, making him the only Republican to support removing Mr. Trump from office.

Mr. Romney said in an interview that he would vote against the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, arguing that House Democrats had failed to exhaust their legal options for securing testimony and other evidence.

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But he said that Democrats had proven their first charge, that the president had misused his office in a bid to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for political reasons.

Speaking slowly and at times haltingly from the Senate floor before the vote, Mr. Romney, who appeared to choke up at the beginning of his speech, said that his decision was made out of an “inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it.” He said Mr. Trump was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”


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Notwithstanding Mr. Romney’s position, the Senate acquit Mr. Trump of both impeachment charges. But the defection of Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is a dramatic capstone on the evolution of a party that has thoroughly succumbed to the vise-grip of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Romney, who has been critical of Mr. Trump at various points since 2016, said he was acutely aware that he would suffer serious political ramifications for his decision, particularly in light of the strict loyalty the president has come to expect from elected officials of his own party. No House Republican voted to impeach Mr. Trump in December. (Representative Justin Amash, a former Republican of Michigan who fled the party over his differences with Mr. Trump, voted in favor of both articles.)

“I recognize there is going to be enormous consequences for having reached this conclusion,” Mr. Romney said. “Unimaginable” is how he described what might be in store for him.

The pushback from Mr. Trump’s camp started quickly. “Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS. He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he’s joining them now. He’s now officially a member of the resistance & should be expelled from the @GOP,” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, wrote on Twitter.
— Mark Leibovich



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House Democrats are ‘likely’ to subpoena John Bolton after the impeachment trial ends.
Image“When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore, you have to spotlight that,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler.
“When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore, you have to spotlight that,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times
Just because it is over does not mean it is actually be over. Hours before the expected Senate vote ending President Trump’s trial, a senior House Democrat indicated that he will continue the investigation on his side of the Capitol, starting with a subpoena for John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters that he would “likely” subpoena Mr. Bolton, who has confirmed in an unpublished book that Mr. Trump conditioned security aid on Ukraine’s willingness to investigate the president’s Democratic rivals, the central allegation in the trial.

“I think it’s likely, yes,” said Mr. Nadler, one of the seven House managers prosecuting the charges against Mr. Trump. “When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore, you have to spotlight that, you have to protect the Constitution despite the political consequences.”



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The House asked Mr. Bolton to testify before the December impeachment vote, but he did not agree and Democrats opted not to subpoena him because it could result in a lengthy court fight. When the articles of impeachment reached the Senate, however, Mr. Bolton publicly said he would comply with a Senate subpoena and testify if called. But Senate Republicans rushed to block any new evidence from being considered, and succeeded last week in holding together enough votes to beat back a bid by Democrats to seek new testimony and documents.

It was not clear whether Mr. Bolton would be willing to comply with a subpoena without a court fight if issued by the House outside the context of an impeachment trial. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bolton had no comment on Wednesday. Even if he did, Mr. Trump could assert executive privilege to try to block his testimony, provoking the legal battle Democrats hoped to avoid.

Doug Jones, who was seen as a possible Democratic defector, ‘reluctantly’ decides to vote to convict Trump.
Senator Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama, announced Wednesday that he planned to vote to convict President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, joining his Democratic colleagues in support of Mr. Trump’s removal.



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Mr. Jones, a moderate who is facing re-election in a state the president won in 2016 by nearly 28 points, was regarded as one of the few Democrats who might break with his party and support an acquittal of the president. But on Wednesday, hours before the vote, he dashed that speculation.

“After many sleepless nights, I have reluctantly concluded that the evidence is sufficient to convict the president for both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,” he said in a statement.

All eyes on Wednesday afternoon will be on a few moderate senators — two other Democrats and one Republican who might cross party lines on the verdict. Mr. Trump would love nothing more than to be able to trumpet a bipartisan acquittal. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate any Republican defections, hoping for monolithic opposition from his party just as he had when the House voted late last year to impeach him.

Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, has left the door open to acquittal but declined to say how he would vote. Mr. Manchin earlier in the week floated the idea of censuring the president, a largely symbolic gesture, but the idea has gained no traction in the polarized Senate. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, another moderate Democrat, is also seen as a wild card.



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Republicans are watching how Senator Mitt Romney of Utah will vote. He has criticized Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and was one of only two Republican senators to vote with Democrats in an unsuccessful bid to consider hearing from additional witnesses and evidence in the trial. (The other was Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who said Tuesday that she would vote to acquit Mr. Trump.)
— Emily Cochrane

Trump avoided impeachment in his State of the Union address, but he may have his say after the votes.
Delivering an address from the rostrum of the House of Representatives that frequently sounded like a campaign stump speech, Mr. Trump nonetheless steered clear during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night of mentioning his impeachment trial.

That was a departure from last year, when Mr. Trump upbraided the House for what he called “ridiculous partisan investigations” and declared: “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.”



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It is not clear if the restraint will hold on Wednesday, after the Senate’s expected votes to acquit him. Mr. Trump told television anchors at a lunch on Tuesday at the White House that he hoped to give a second set of remarks after the impeachment saga had ended.

Mr. Trump would like to hold a news conference or give a short statement. But most of his advisers have been urging him against it, wanting to ease pressure on senators for whom the vote was politically difficult.

‘It’s my hope we’ve finally found bottom.’ Senators lament a broken institution.
Normally a staid body, the Senate for the past two weeks has been roiled day after day by the impeachment trial, leaving several senators dejected and dug into their partisan corners.



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Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said in a speech on the Senate floor that the chamber “should be ashamed by the rank partisanship that has been on display here,” adding later: “It’s my hope that we’ve finally found bottom here.” She said she planned to acquit Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump’s likely acquittal has also left Democrats embittered about the future of the institution in which they serve. Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said that while he wasn’t surprised by Mr. Trump’s abuse of power, he was surprised by the Senate’s “capitulation” to the president.

“Unchallenged evil spreads like a virus,” Mr. Kaine said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “We have allowed a toxic President to infect the Senate and warp its behavior.”

So where does that leave the Senate? Other senators sounded a more optimistic note.

“I think we heal in part by surprising the people and coming out from our partisan corners and getting stuff done,” Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said, citing addressing the opioid crisis and crumbling infrastructure as examples. “Stuff that they care about that affects the families we were sent here to represent.”

A Brief Guide to the Trump Impeachment Trial
Where are we in the process?
The Senate is holding a trial to determine whether to acquit President Trump or convict and remove him from office. It is the third such trial of a president in American history.
Who is presiding over the trial?
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is presiding in a mostly ceremonial role.
What is President Trump accused of doing?
He is accused of pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate his political rivals — including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a potential Democratic opponent in the 2020 election — in exchange for military aid and access to the White House.
How did we get here?
In August, a whistle-blower’s complaint said that White House officials believed they had witnessed Mr. Trump abuse his power for political gain during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
What is the role of the House of Representatives?
After beginning an inquiry, the House voted in December to impeach Mr. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, prompting a Senate trial.
Who is on both sides of the case in the trial?
Seven House Democrats are serving as impeachment managers, presenting the case gathered during the impeachment inquiry. Mr. Trump has a team of lawyers arguing in his defense.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/impeachment-vote.html?0p19G=2870

Not surprised tho

Na so... currently watching it

fd

Where we expecting anything different, it was a dead call from the start, u don't expect republican to vote against there's, it can never happen

tuzle:
Where we expecting anything different, it was a dead call from the start, u don't expect republican to vote against there's, it can never happen

I think it served its purpose, they needed something on him for the upcoming elections, no sane human being believed they'll be able to remove him from office.

No one dares God.
Democrats is filled with unholy idiots in it.
Shame to them.
Donald Trump, the mount Zion of America

I guess is not only me that didn't read to the end