BREAKING NEWS: Senator Patrick Leahy is hospitalized just hours after he is sworn in to preside over the Donald Trump’s second impeachment
- Leahy is president pro tempore and the most senior Democrat
- He was sworn in Tuesday to preside over the court of impeachment
- Democrats control the 50-50 Senate
- He was taken to hospital for observation ‘out of an abundance of caution’
- Reported he wasn’t feeling well
Vermont Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy was hospitalized Tuesday just hours after being sworn in to preside over the second impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Leahy, 80, is the president pro tempore of the Senate. He is third in the line of succession and the most senior Democrat in the Senate. He took up his role presiding as other senators were sworn in as the court of impeachment Tuesday.
‘This evening, Sen. Leahy was in his Capitol office and was not feeling well. He was examined in the Capitol by the Attending Physician, his spokesman David Carle told ABC News.
In this image from video, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, swears in Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate, who will preside over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Leahy was hospitalized after telling the Capitol physician he wasn’t feeling well
‘Out of an abundance of caution, the Attending Physician recommended that he be taken to a local hospital for observation, where he is now, and where he is being evaluated,’ he added.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts presided over Trump’s first impeachment, but reportedly did not want to do it again for the first impeachment of a former president.
Beyond his mostly ceremonial role at the trial, Leahy, like every other Senate Democrat, helps ensure the party’s majority in the 50-50 Senate. Since Democrats control the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris can break ties as president of the Senate and provides the party effective control.
Leahy is the senior most Senate Democrat and president pro tempore of the body
In this image from video, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, shakes hands with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate
News of Leahy’s hospitalization came hours after 45 Republicans voted on a procedural motion that the trial of Trump after he left office was unconstitutional – a sign that the effort to impeach Trump faced steep obstacles.
Seventeen Republicans would need to join 50 Democrats to convict Trump.
Tuesday’s trial action was mostly ceremonial, and sets up a substantive trial that will begin February 9.
In the meantime, Trump’s lawyers and Democratic managers are preparing briefs that they would file on the charge of ‘incitement of insurrection’ following the Jan. 6 MAGA riots inside the Capitol.
Leahy is the top Democrat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, and previously chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. First elected in 1974, he served decades with President Joe Biden when he was in the Senate.
An avid amateur photographer, he snapped images in the Capitol shortly before Trump’s historic second impeachment began.