Republican senators sent a powerful message to Democrats who voted to impeach former President Donald J. Trump, as 45 out of 55 senators voted on Tuesday to declare the impeachment trial to be unconstitutional.
This means that there won't be enough votes to impeach Donald Trump when the trial begins on the week of Feb. 8 according to CBN News. Seventeen Republicans would have to join the Senate Democrats to reach the two-thirds supermajority required to impeach Trump -- the Tuesday votes clearly indicated that there aren't enough Republican Senators who are willing to partake in it.
House Democrats were quick to vote, without holding any hearings, to impeach Trump before he could even leave the office and accuse him of "incitement of insurrection" after the Jan. 6 riot that happened on the U.S. Capitol building.
Trump, however, never called for any insurrection or violence, experts said.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul asked his fellow senators to join him and go on the record to try and challenge Senate Democrats who are planning to hold Trump on trial even though he is no longer in the White House by having the trial tossed out of the Senate as unconstitutional.
"Forty-five votes means the impeachment trial is dead on arrival," Senator Paul said according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Senate just voted on my constitutional point of order.
45 Senators agreed that this sham of a “trial” is unconstitutional.
That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process.
This “trial” is dead on arrival in the Senate.— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 26, 2021
Paul also mentioned that Trump's impeachment trial brings no good and is nothing more than a partisan exercise designed to "further divide the country"
"Democrats claim to want to unify the country but impeaching of former president [Donald Trump], a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity" he added.
"Instead of doing the nation's work, with their new majorities in the house, the senate, and the executive branch, Democrats are wasting the nation's time on a partisan vendetta against a man no longer in office," he continued, asking Democrats to do their job instead of wasting time on nonsense.
GOP lawmakers argued that Trump's trial is not in accordance with the constitution since Trump is no longer the president.
"The automatic consequence of impeachment and trial, if you're convicted, the automatic consequence of it is you're removed from office," says Senator Marco Rubio in a conference with Fox News. "That's the automatic consequence of this process."
How can you put someone through a process where the automatic consequence of it is impossible? You can't remove Donald Trump from office, he's not in office." he added.
Senator James Lankford also gave his opinion on the trial saying, "This is not a trial; this is political theater. You cannot remove someone from office who is already out of office. In this trial, there is no current President, no Chief Justice, and no possibility someone could be removed from office because they are not in any office. In a moment when our nation needs to unite, this trial will only create even deeper divisions."
Although, Democrat Senators insist that the constitution does not exempt Donald Trump from impeachment even if he is no longer in office.
"The theory that the Senate can't try former officials would amount to a constitutional 'get out of jail' free card for any presidents who commit an impeachable offense," claimed Senator Chuck Schumer, despite the move's utter unconstitutionality.
Interestingly, former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee indicated that if Trump could be impeached for inciting violence, which he never did, then Kamala Harris could also be impeached for giving her support to rioters and looters who destroyed properties last year. Harris even raised funds to provide bail for the rioters and looter who were already in prison.
