Washington DC, US
Reuters
A prominent Republican senator, Mitt Romney, on Wednesday became the only member of his party to announce plans to vote to convict Donald Trump in his impeachment trial just hours before the US Senate was poised to acquit the Republican President.
The Republican-controlled Senate was scheduled to hold its historic vote at 4pm on whether to remove Trump from office on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress arising from his dealings with Ukraine in only the third presidential impeachment trial in US history. The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the charges on 18th December.
US Senator Mitt Romney walks from the senate chamber during a break in the Senate impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump at the US Capitol in Washington, US, on 31st January. PICTURE: Reuters/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who has previously criticised Trump on other matters, called the president’s actions in pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden “grievously wrong” and said Trump was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust”.
“What he did was not ‘perfect,'” Romney said on the Senate floor, as Trump has described his call with Ukraine’s President that was at the heart of the scandal. “No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep one’s self in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.”
The impeachment drama that has consumed Washington since September will come to an end with Wednesday’s vote, allowing Trump to pivot towards winning re-election in November.
While the vote is historic, the outcome of acquittal appears assured. A two-thirds majority vote would be necessary to remove him. Trump, America’s 45th president, would have to turn over his office to Vice President Mike Pence if convicted on either charge.
After facing the darkest chapter of his presidency, Trump, 73, is seeking a second four-year term in the 3rd November election.
Romney, a moderate and elder statesman in his party, paused during his speech as he became choked up with emotion.
“I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am,” said Romney, a Mormon. “I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”
“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 misdemeanour.’ Yes, he did,” Romney said.
“The President asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The President withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The President delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders.”
Romney said he knew some fellow Republicans would strenuously disapprove of his decision and that he would be vehemently denounced. But he called his decision “an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it of me.”
“Country deserves better”
As they did on Tuesday, senators ahead of the vote made a series of speeches explaining their decisions in the trial. It remains to be seen whether any Democratic senators break ranks from their party to hand Trump a bipartisan acquittal.
Democratic Senator Doug Jones, facing a tough re-election bid this year in Republican-dominated Alabama, said he would vote to convict Trump on both charges and voiced alarm at the arguments by the president’s lawyers in favour of virtually unchecked presidential power.
“Our country deserves better than this. They deserve better from the president. They deserve better from the Congress. We must find a way to come together to set aside partisan differences and to focus on what we have in common as Americans,” Jones said.
The impeachment charges against Trump centred on his request that Ukraine investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden and the president’s subsequent actions to block testimony and documents sought by the House in its impeachment investigation.
Democrats accused Trump of abusing his power by withholding $US391 million in security aid passed by Congress to help Ukraine combat Russia-backed separatists as leverage to pressure Kiev to help him smear Biden, who is seeking his party’s nomination to challenge Trump in November.
Trump denied wrongdoing and most Republicans in the House and Senate rallied around him. Over the past few days, some Republican senators have criticized Trump’s behaviour but said it did not warrant his ouster.
“I hope our Democratic colleagues will finally accept the results of this trial, just as they have not accepted the results of the 2016 election,” said Republican Senator John Cornyn, saying he hoped they did not launch a second impeachment inquiry. “It’s time for our country to come together, to heal the wounds that divide us.”
The House launched its impeachment inquiry in September. The Senate trial began on Jan. 16. Senate Republicans voted down a Democratic bid to call witnesses such as former national security adviser John Bolton and present new evidence in the trial.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters that Democrats likely would subpoena Bolton, who in an unpublished book manuscript described Trump as playing a central role in pressuring Ukraine, as they continue to investigate the president.
Trump is the third US president to have been impeached. The two others, Bill Clinton in 1999 and Andrew Johnson in 1868, were left in power by the Senate.
– With reporting by RICHARD COWAN, LISA LAMBERT, PATRICIA ZENGERLE and MAKINI BRICE
