Impeachment manager Plaskett: GOP senators privately said she ‘made the case’ against Trump

Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), one of the House impeachment managers during former President Trump’s second impeachment trial, said some GOP senators privately told her she “made the case” against him.

During an appearance on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” on Monday night, Plaskett said some Republicans said they would vote to acquit Trump even though she made a strong argument that he incited the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that led to five deaths.

“I had senators even after we presented who stopped me in the hallway — Republicans — who said that we had made the case but yet they were going to vote to acquit the president,” Plaskett told host Chris Cuomo.

Plaskett also said she offered those senators a “get-out-of-jail-free card” by suggesting they vote to convict the former president but not to disqualify him from future office, which would have taken only a majority. That second vote never happened, however, because Trump was acquitted.  

“The response was ‘Well, you’ll never get to 17, so I’ll never get to that second disqualification vote, and I’m not going to stand out on a limb all by myself,’” Plaskett said.

The Capitol siege was in affect a “second kind of Civil War,” says Del Stacey Plaskett, an impeachment manager in the 2nd trial of former Pres. Trump

“We were on the frontlines to save our…Republic,” she said. “…We have shown who Donald Trump is…the enemy that was among us” pic.twitter.com/eZ0Ig1q8v4

— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) February 16, 2021

The Senate voted on Saturday to acquit Trump of inciting the riot. Seven GOP senators joined all 50 Democrats in voting that Trump was “guilty” of inciting the riot but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict.

Speaking of the vote late Monday, Plaskett said she didn’t think the Republicans who voted to acquit Trump represented a majority of America.

“I don’t believe that what we saw among those people are what is the majority of Americans,” Plaskett said.

“Those 43 individuals who believe that their party and the president was more important than their oath, who believe that a seat in the Senate was more important than their constitutional duty, I think, represent a much smaller number of Americans that are out there,” she added.