David Kurtz, TPM: “Jan. 6 felt that momentous then, not just as a culmination of the conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election, but a clear and present choice about what path the country would take from there… The results of the 2024 election made clear which fork we took, and so we now remember the attack on the Capitol not as a mere warning sign or as a glorious moment when democracy bent but did not break but rather as a last chance to avoid a calamitous path that has taken us over a cliff. We haven’t hit bottom yet.”
On January 13th the House voted to impeach Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection. If convicted by two-thirds of the senate, he could have been barred from holding future public office. Minutes after the vote, Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell rejected calling an emergency session for the trial, guaranteeing that it would be held after Trump’s term had ended. Then on January 26th, four days after Biden had been sworn in, forty-five sitting Republican Senators voted for a motion declaring the impeachment was unconstitutional because Trump was no longer president. This acted both as a fig-leaf and, and since 17 Republicans were needed to convict was also a clear sign that Republicans were dead-set against holding Trump accountable for his actions, regardless of what evidence the House would show at trial.
After the trial, only seven Republicans joined all fifty Democrats in voting to convict: Richard Burr (NC), Bill Cassidy (La), Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Ben Sasse (Neb), Pat Toomey (Pa).
The following forty-three senators voted to acquit:
- John Barrasso (Wyo)
- Marsha Blackburn (Tenn)
- Roy Blunt (Mo)
- John Boozman (Ark)
- Mike Braun (Ind)
- Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va)
- John Cornyn (Texas)
- Tom Cotton (Ark)
- Kevin Cramer (ND)
- Mike Crapo (Idaho)
- Ted Cruz (Texas)
- Steve Daines (Mont)
- Joni Ernst (Iowa)
- Deb Fischer (Neb)
- Lindsey Graham (SC)
- Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
- Bill Hagerty (Tenn)
- Josh Hawley (Mo)
- John Hoeven (N.D)
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss)
- Jim Inhofe (Okla)
- Ron Johnson (Wis)
- John Kennedy (La)
- James Lankford (Okla)
- Mike Lee (Utah)
- Cynthia Lummis (Wyo)
- Roger Marshall (Kan)
- Mitch McConnell (Ky)
- Jerry Moran (Kan)
- Rand Paul (Ky)
- Rob Portman (Ohio)
- Jim Risch (Idaho)
- Mike Rounds (SD)
- Marco Rubio (Fla)
- Rick Scott (Fla)
- Tim Scott (SC)
- Richard Shelby (Ala)
- Dan Sullivan (Alaska)
- John Thune (S.D)
- Thom Tillis (NC)
- Tommy Tuberville (Ala)
- Roger Wicker (Miss)
- Todd Young (Ind)