Seven Republican senators voted on Saturday to convict former President Trump of inciting the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
GOP Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) broke with their party, dealing a substantial blow to Trump.
The GOP senators joined with every member of the Democratic caucus but still fell short of the two-thirds majority — 67 votes — need to successfully find him “guilty,” the question before the Senate.
The support from Republicans is more GOP support than the impeachment effort received in 2020, when only Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) voted for one of the articles.
With 45, and subsequently 44, GOP senators voting to say that Trump’s trial was unconstitutional, the number of GOP senators open to convicting was limited to a handful of must-watch Republicans.
Burr, who had previously said he wouldn’t run for reelection, previously voted that the trial was unconstitutional but then voted to convict Trump on Saturday.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who had kept his colleagues guessing for weeks, told reporters in an email on Saturday morning that he would vote to acquit Trump.
But it underscores that there’s a bipartisan belief that Trump incited the riot after he falsely claimed for weeks that the election was “stolen” and then urged his supporters to march to the Capitol as former Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers were counting the Electoral College vote.
The GOP support in the Senate comes after 10 House Republicans supported the impeachment effort last month, making it the chamber’s most bipartisan vote to impeach a president.