02/13/2021

U.S. Senate Acquits Trump in His Second Impeachment Trial

The vote of 57-43 negated Trump's role in inciting the violence on Jan. 6 at the Capitol

On Saturday, Donald Trump was acquitted by the U.S. Senate in his second impeachment trial in 12 months, as his fellow Republicans shielded him from his accountability for the deadly assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, a shrine of American democracy.

The Senate vote of 57-43 fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after a five-day trial in the same building ransacked by his followers on Jan. 6 shortly after they heard him deliver an incendiary speech.

In the vote, seven of the 50 Senate Republicans joined the chamber’s unified Democrats in favoring conviction. Trump left office on Jan. 20, so impeachment could not be used to remove him from power. But Democrats had hoped to secure a conviction to hold him responsible for a siege that left five people including a police officer dead and to set the stage for a vote to bar him from ever serving in public office again. Given the chance to hold office in the future, they argued, Trump would not hesitate to encourage political violence again.

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