How McConnell derailed Trump's impeachment trial before it started
By Alexander Bolton - 01/29/21 06:00 AM EST Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Jan. 13 announced to colleagues that he was open to voting to convict President Trump for inciting an insurrection, but since then he has taken steps behind the scenes to throttle the Democratic impeachment effort.
On Tuesday, 45 GOP senators voted in support of a motion from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) declaring Trump’s second impeachment trial unconstitutional on the grounds that Trump is no longer president.
The vote made it clear that there will be no Senate conviction of Trump, since at least 17 GOP votes would be needed to secure the 67 votes necessary in a 50-50 Senate.
“Just do the math,†Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of five Republicans to oppose Paul’s motion, remarked to reporters after the vote.
McConnell was described by associates as “furious†over the mob attack on the Capitol, and he has continued to say he will keep an open mind to legal arguments presented during the trial.
It seems clear he is more than open to the party moving on from Trump, particularly after the former president was widely blamed for the GOP losing two runoff elections in Georgia that cost it the Senate majority.
At the same time, McConnell likely wanted to avoid an intense fight within the caucus over a Trump conviction. And he’d seen the blowback in the House, where Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump have come under furious criticism from the former president's supporters.
Over the last several weeks, McConnell made a series of moves in the lead-up to the vote on Paul’s motion that GOP senators said made it highly likely that the motion would succeed.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/536408-how-mcconnell-derailed-trumps-impeachment-trial-before-it-started
