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Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky informed colleagues in an email Saturday morning that he will vote to acquit Donald Trump on the charge of inciting a deadly insurrection, despite admitting less than two weeks after the January 6 assault that the former president “provoked” the right-wing mob.
McConnell hid behind a procedural justification for his decision to vote to acquit, echoing the position of many of his Republican colleagues.
“While a close call,” McConnell wrote, “I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) tweeted in response to news of McConnell’s decision that “it is disappointing but not at all surprising that Trump’s worst enablers will stand with him.”
“McConnell’s failure to put the needs of the country before partisan politics will define his legacy, and shape the future of a Republican Party increasingly embracing authoritarianism,” wrote Beyer. “McConnell kept the trial from starting until Trump had left office. Now McConnell says he won’t convict Trump because he is no longer in office.
“Pure cynical partisanship to let Trump get away with inciting the attack on the Capitol, and all the death and destruction it caused,” Beyer added.
A final verdict in the Trump impeachment trial could come as early as Saturday afternoon. A two-thirds vote is needed to convict.
