After not-guilty vote, McConnell says Trump 'morally in charge' for Capitol riot
14 February, 2021
US Senate Minority Head Mitch McConnell called Donald Trump "practically and morally responsible" for his supporters' deadly attack on the Capitol, simply moments after voting to acquit the Republican previous president on an impeachment fee of inciting the melee.
The most notable Senate Republican explained the unexpected turnabout by the end of a five-day impeachment trial, by declaring it unconstitutional to convict Trump of misconduct given that the former president has left office and be a private citizen.
The Senate earlier in the week discovered that the trial was constitutional in a 56-44 vote.
"There is no concern that President Trump is practically and morally in charge of provoking the events of your day," said McConnell, who together with the remaining Congress and ex - vice president Mike Pence fled the mob that descended over the Capitol in Jan 6.
"The persons who stormed this construction believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," McConnell said in a speech on the Senate ground.
The remarks came immediately after the 100-seat chamber acquitted Trump about the same charge of inciting insurrection in a 57-43 vote that didn't reach the 67-vote threshold necessary for conviction. Seven Senate Republicans joined Democrats to vote for conviction.
The House of Representatives had impeached Trump on Jan 13, weekly before he still left office.
House Loudspeaker Nancy Pelosi denounced the senators who also produced Trump's acquittal possible as a "cowardly group of Republicans" and blamed McConnell for not allowing the House to provide the impeachment fee to the Senate even though Trump was still found in the White House.
"Senator Mitch McConnell just went to the floor essentially to say that people made our circumstance on the facts," said Representative Jamie Raskin, who possessed led the 9 House Democrats who prosecuted Trump prior to the Senate.
McConnell had not been the only Republican to castigate Trump for his behaviour after voting for acquittal.
"The question I must answer isn't whether President Trump explained and did things which were reckless and motivated the mob. I think that happened," Senator Rob Portman in a statement.
"My decision was predicated on my browsing of the Constitution," the Ohio Republican added. "I believe the Framers understood that convicting a past president and disqualifying her or him from running once again pulls persons further apart."
Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate's most senior Republican, described Trump's language found in a good fiery speech to supporters right before the Capitol assault while "intensive, aggressive and irresponsible".
But he said the Senate had no jurisdiction to carry a trial, agreed with Trump's legal crew that the former president deserved even more "due process" and said the prosecution hadn't made their case.
In comments that echoed the prosecution's case, McConnell said Trump had orchestrated "an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories" and described the ex - president as "decided to either overturn the voters' decision or else torch our institutions along the way out".
McConnell suggested that Trump could nonetheless encounter criminal prosecution for his functions.
"President Trump is still responsible for everything he did while he was in workplace as an ordinary citizen," McConnell explained. "He didn't get away with anything. Yet."
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com