Foregone Conclusion Reached

The foregone impeachment conclusion finally came about today as the Senate Acquits Trump on Both Impeachment Articles.

On the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, all 47 Democrats and one Republican voted to convict the president, falling short of the 67 needed to remove the president from office.

On the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, the vote also failed, with all Democrats and no Republicans finding the president guilty.

One Surprise Vote

There was never any realistic hope of conviction given that it takes 67 senators to agree.

But there was one surprise.

“The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” said Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican, on the Senate floor before the vote.

The action by Mr. Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, made him the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party. In the impeachment trials of Democratic presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, no Democratic senators voted to convict.

The White House, which as late as Wednesday morning had been predicting that all Republican senators would vote to acquit the president, was caught off-guard by Mr. Romney’s announcement, aides said. The White House abruptly closed to the media a planned event at which Mr. Trump had been expected to make remarks.

Full transcript of Romney’s Senate Impeachment Trial Remarks

Here is an excerpt from the Full Transcript of Sen. Mitt Romney’s Senate Impeachment Trial Remarks

The allegations made in the articles of impeachment are very serious. As a senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise “impartial justice.” I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.

The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a “high crime and misdemeanor.”

Yes, he did.

Full Video

My thoughts on today’s impeachment vote → https://t.co/Tk1OJWnEdc

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) February 5, 2020

Romney a Traitor?

TownHall comments Nice Work, Traitor: Mitt Romney's Vote to Impeach Trump Will Only Hurt Senate Republicans and Help Schumer

I strongly disagree.

I am tired of partisan politics an blind faith allegiance to the person in charge.

I salute Mitt Romney, not for his stance, but for having the courage and conviction to act on his beliefs.

Supposedly Romney is a "traitor" for having the courage and conviction to do what he honestly believes is correct.

The real traitors are those who in the name of partisan politics do otherwise.

I salute Romney

Whether I, or anyone else agrees with his vote is irrelevant.

He had the courage to act.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock