Trump arrives at the podium to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of the US Congress in the House Chamber |
Washington USA
The United States Senate
cleared Donald Trump of
both charges in its impeachment trial
of the president, bringing to an end the impeachment saga that has consumed
Washington since the House of Representatives launched its inquiry into the
Trump's actions last September.
In
a 52-48 vote, the Senate found Trump not guilty of abusing his power of office.
The Senate voted 53-47 to acquit the president on the charge of obstruction of
Congress.
On the first charge, one Republican,
Senator Mitt Romney, broke rank and joined all Democrats in voting to convict
Trump of abuse of power. But the vote fell well short of the two-thirds
majority needed to remove a president. Romney voted with his party on the
obstruction of Congress charge.
Democrats
had accused Trump of abusing his power by orchestrating a pressure campaign to
get Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe
Biden. They also accused him of obstructing Congress for refusing to
participate in the impeachment inquiry. Trump denied any wrongdoing, repeatedly
calling the impeachment a "hoax".
Trump repeated that assertion again shortly
after the trial, tweeting he will discuss "our country's VICTORY on the
Impeachment Hoax!" in a public statement from the White House on Thursday
afternoon.
"The
sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the FULL vindication
and exoneration of President @realDonaldTrump," tweeted White House Press
Secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Trump's legal defence in the Senate trial had
argued that House Democrats did not sufficiently prove that Trump engaged in
the pressure campaign.
Even if
Trump did what House Democrats accused him of, many Republicans said it was not
a serious enough offence to remove him from office or ban him from running
again with only nine months to go before the next US presidential election.
Several
Republican senators said the House proved its case and they expressed
disapproval of the president's conduct.
"The
president's behaviour was shameful and wrong. His personal interests do not
take precedence over those of this great nation," Republican Senator Lisa
Murkowski said in floor remarks.
Republican
Senator Lamar Alexander said in a statement, "it was inappropriate for the
president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to
withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation."
While
acquittal was always the likely outcome, the question of whether the Senate
would call witnesses came to a dramatic head last week amid new revelations
from former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton about Trump's alleged
wrongdoing. After four hours of arguments, the Senate voted to block witnesses
and new evidence in a 51-49 vote.
Moderate
Republicans faced heavy political pressure from Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell and the White House not to break ranks during the trial.
McConnell
met privately with Murkowski and convinced her not to vote with Democrats to
call witnesses in the trial.
McConnell,
speaking to reporters after Wednesday's vote, accused Democrats of using the
impeachment trial to try to gain an advantage in winning control of the Senate
in November, but called the effort "a colossal political mistake." He
also said he was "surprised and disappointed" by Romney's vote.
Asked by
a reporter whether it was acceptable for a president to ask a foreign country
to investigate a political rival, McConnell declined to answer directly.
Trump's
acquittal is not likely to satisfy Democrats' quest for answers and will leave
Trump and his administration open to continuing House investigations.
Chuck
Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said Trump's acquittal in an unfair trial was
worth nothing.
"No
doubt, the president will boast he received total exoneration. But we know
better. We know this wasn't a trial by any stretch of the definition," he
said.
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Wednesday's acquittal, saying "the president
and Senate Republicans have normalised lawlessness and rejected the system of
checks and balances of our constitution".
She
added: "The president will boast that he has been acquitted. There can be
no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses,
documents and evidence ... The president is impeached
forever."
House
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who also served as a House manager
in the Senate trial, said earlier on Wednesday that the House would likely
subpoena Bolton to testify and continue its investigation into the president.
Democrats
have expressed concern that an acquittal would further embolden a president who
already challenges political norms. They have painted him as a threat to US
democracy and a demagogue who has acted lawlessly and exhibited a contempt for
the powers of Congress and other institutions. They also have voiced concern
over Russia interfering in another US election.
The core
of Trump's impeachment revolved around a July 25 phone call the US president
had for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump asked the
Ukrainian for "a favour".
Before
and after the call, according to testimony in the impeachment inquiry, Trump
directed government officials and his private agent Rudy Guiliani to demand
Zelenskyy announce political investigations in exchange for the release of
nearly $400m in security assistance and a White House meeting for Zelenskyy.
Trump
wanted Zelenskyy to undertake official investigations of Joe Biden and his son,
Hunter, who was a paid board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. There
is no evidence the Bidens did anything wrong.
Trump
further pushed Zelenskyy to look into a debunked conspiracy theory that it was
Ukraine, not Russia, that hacked emails and documents of the Democratic
National Committee in 2016 and the campaign of then-candidate Hillary Clinton.
Special
Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation charged Russian intelligence agents with
the 2016 cyberattack and US intelligence agencies concluded publicly Russia was
behind the attacks.
Trump is
only the third US president ever to face a Senate trial. No president has ever
been removed from office in an impeachment proceeding.
The
acquittal handed Trump his biggest victory yet over his Democratic adversaries
in Congress.
Trump's
job approval ratings have remained fairly consistent throughout his presidency
and the impeachment process as his core conservative supporters - especially
white men, rural Americans, evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics -
stick with him.
The
latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, suggested 42
percent of American adults approved of his performance, while 54 percent
disapproved. That is nearly the same as when the House launched its impeachment
inquiry in September, when his approval stood at 43 percent and disapproval at
53 percent.
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