Mitch McConnell gives Republican senators permission to find Donald Trump guilty saying impeachment is a ‘vote of conscience’ – as North Dakota’s Kevin Cramer says Trump supporters ‘want to cut my head off’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is telling his Republican colleagues President Trump‘s impeachment trial will be a ‘vote of conscience’ – an absence of pressure that leaves the president’s fate up in the air.
McConnell has already communicated that he himself has not made up his mind on whether to convict Trump – following reports of his fury after a MAGA mob ransacked the Capitol, with one crowd of invaders stopped steps from McConnell’s leadership office.
‘His message to me was this would clearly be a vote of conscience,’ Montana Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer said. ‘He’s always been respectful of members that way.’
‘VOTE OF CONSCIENCE’: Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), right, ‘ says Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told him impeachment will be a ‘vote of conscience,’ without leadership pressure to convict or acquit President Trump
House leaders also called the House impeachment vote this week a ‘vote of conscience’ – and 10 Republicans including Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney joined Democrats, with 232 voting to impeach Trump.
In the Senate, Democrats would need 17 Republicans to convict – putting individual senators to weigh their feelings as well as the views of some of their angry constituents.
‘A conviction of Trump may mean he doesn’t run again, but it doesn’t mean he gives up without a fight,’ Cramer told Business Insider. ‘All my pro-Trump Republican friends want to take my head off for not blowing up the Constitution.’
Seven Republican senators voted along with House members who objected to the certified electoral votes from Pennsylvania, and six did so for the votes from Arizona.
Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), center, receives a religious blessing from supporters during a rally supporting President Donald Trump on January 5, 2021 in Washington, DC – a day before a MAGA mob ransacked the Capitol
Cramer, along with most of his colleagues, voted to count the votes that made Joe Biden the winner.
Cramer, who like almost all Republicans backed Trump throughout his stormy tenure, said he didn’t want to vote to convict but might vote to prohibit him from holding any office of public trust after the MAGA riot in the Capitol.
That question, which comes on a majority vote following conviction, has major political implications both for the nation and for the party, with several political rivals to Trump in 2024 holding seats in the chamber.
Two of them, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, were leaders of the effort to toss out votes, and stood by their position even after rioters trashed the Capitol.