With 56-44 vote, Senate proceeds with Trump’s impeachment trial [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• In a 56-44 vote on Tuesday, the Senate moved to proceed with former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
• Six Republican senators voted to push through with the trial.
• GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA.) said that he flipped over his vote last month after hearing the compelling argument of the Democratic House impeachment managers.

Despite losing another majority vote on former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, most GOP Senators opted out in proceeding with the case on Tuesday, signaling for the second time that Trump would be unlikely convicted.

After roughly four hours of arguments by attorneys on the different sides of the spectrum, Senators voted 56-44 in accusing that Trump incited the January 6 US Capitol siege led by his supporters.

Aside from 50 Democrats, six Republicans voted that the former president’s impeachment case should go ahead. The total vote, however, indicated that it would be unlikely to convict Trump since at least 17 GOPs are needed to achieve the two-thirds majority of the vote.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA.), the GOP senator who voted that Trump’s impeachment was unconstitutional last month, said that he changed course due to the argumentative robustness of the Democratic House impeachment managers and the relatively lethargic defense of Trump’s lawyers.

“President Trump’s team were disorganized. They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand — and when they talked about it, they kind of glided over, almost as if they were embarrassed of their arguments,” Cassidy said after the vote, adding that “now, I’m an impartial juror. And one side’s doing a great job and the other side’s doing a terrible job at the issue at hand, and as an impartial juror, I’m going to vote for the side that did a good job.”

Other GOP senators who remained firm in their stand and voted in favor of Trump’s impeachment include his regular critic Sen. Mitt Romney (UH.), who was the only Republican senator voting to convict him during his first impeachment trial last year, Sen. Lisa Murkowski AK.), Sen. Susan Collins (ME.), Sen. Ben Sasse (NE.), and Sen. Pat Toomey (PA.).

Source: New York Post