The United States Senate has overthrown a Republican attempt to declare unconstitutional the new impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump.
The resolution, introduced by Republican Senator Rand Paul, has been rejected by 55 votes, as five Republicans – Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Pat Toomey – have joined the Democratic ranks in the vote. .
However, the vast majority of GOP senators, 45 – including the Republican minority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell – have backed Paul’s move, CNN television reported.
Paul has defended his resolution justifying that the impeachment trial against Trump is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer the president of the United States. As he has argued, the process “would judge a private citizen and not a president.”
The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has responded to the Republican senator that the Constitution of the North American nation allows to avoid ex-officials to occupy federal positions in the future.
The United States House of Representatives on Monday sent to the Senate the article of impeachment against Trump for “inciting rebellion” during the riots and the assault on the Capitol on January 6, thus formally triggering the start of a new trial politician against him, the second in less than a year.
However, the Senate vote is expected to be delayed until February 8, after the leader Schumer and McConnell agreed to give Trump’s legal team more time so that he could prepare his defense.
The United States House of Representatives, with a large Democratic majority, approved on January 13 to initiate an ‘impeachment’ against Donald Trump, in a vote in which up to ten Republicans gave their support.
However, the slim majority that the Democratic Party has in the Senate – it can only be reached with the tiebreaker vote of the vice president, Kamala Harris – forces them to have at least the support of 17 Republican senators so that the initiative of ‘impeachment’ can succeed.
In February 2020, Trump was acquitted after being charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring Ukrainian leaders to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter for their business activities.
