The Democrats’ attempts to remove President Donald Trump from office have failed after a Senate vote fully acquitted him on both articles of impeachment.
With Trump looking good for re-election this year, Republican senators voted to acquit their leader 52-48 on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress.
In a statement following the verdict, Trump’s re-election campaign said the president had been “totally vindicated” and insisted it was “now time to get back to the business of the American people.”
"The do-nothing Democrats know they can't beat him, so they had to impeach him,” they added, before lambasting the trial as “nonsense.”
"This impeachment hoax will go down as the worst miscalculation in American political history,” the campaign concluded.
Donald Trump will be the first impeached president in history to seek re-election.
Perhaps the most shocking vote of the night came from Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who defied his party and voted to convict the President on the first charge of abuse of power.
Romney cited his faith as informing his decision to vote against Trump. “I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious,” he declared ahead of the vote, according to the New York Post. “My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”
Romney’s blatant rejection of the party line sparked angry comments from the President himself, who tweeted that the Utah senator was a “failed presidential candidate.”
Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2020
Earlier, Trump had tweeted a video accusing Romney of “posing as a Republican to infiltrate [his] administration,” before being “exposed by news reports as a Democrat secret asset.”
Most Republican senators reacted with jubilation at the acquittal.
“Moments like this are what the Senate was made for,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. “The Framers knew the country would need a firewall to keep partisan flames from scorching our Republic.”
“So they created the Senate. Today, we will fulfill this founding purpose.”
Moments like this are what the Senate was made for. The Framers knew the country would need a firewall to keep partisan flames from scorching our Republic.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) February 5, 2020
So they created the Senate. Today, we will fulfill this founding purpose.
Sen. Lindsey Graham added that the “partisan-driven impeachment has done injury to the office of the presidency and was an injustice to President Trump.”
“As I said after the Clinton impeachment trial, the Senate has spoken and the cloud over the presidency has been removed,” Graham added. “I meant it then and mean it now.”
This partisan-driven impeachment has done injury to the office of the presidency and was an injustice to President Trump.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 5, 2020
As I said after the Clinton impeachment trial, the Senate has spoken and the cloud over the presidency has been removed. I meant it then and mean it now.
Despite the ongoing impeachment saga, Trump has been logging some excellent polling numbers. As Christian Headlines previously reported, last week, a Gallup poll reported that the President’s approval rating was sitting at 49 percent – his highest figure in Gallup polling since taking office in 2017.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Win McNamee/Staff
Will Maule is a British journalist who has spent the past several years working as a digital news editor. Since earning a degree in international relations and politics, Will has developed a particular interest in covering ethical issues, human rights and global religious persecution. Will's work has been featured in various outlets including The Spectator, Faithwire, CBN News, Spiked, The Federalist and Christian Headlines. Follow him on Twitter at @WillAMaule.
