Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio lead the GOP senators blasting Trump’s second impeachment

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Donald Trump’s second impeachment is ‘a clown show,’ a ‘stupid joke’, ‘vindictive’ and unconstitutional, according to a trio of high-profile Republican senators who set out on Tuesday night to argue against the trial.

Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina all appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, arguing that it was wrong to press ahead with impeaching the president.

Earlier on Tuesday a majority of Republicans had voted in favor of a motion that Trump ‘s second impeachment is unconstitutional: a sign the former president will likely be acquitted in his upcoming trial.

Rand Paul, senator for Kentucky, forced the vote on the issue, arguing the trial was illegal given that Trump no longer occupies the Oval Office.

Most Republicans, including their leader in the senate, Mitch McConnell, agreed with him.

Forty five of them voted it was illegal. Five GOP senators joined Democrats, to give them 55 votes to proceed.

It would take two-thirds of the Senate to convict Trump, which would mean 17 Republican senators would have to cross ranks and vote for the conviction.

Paul needed more than 34 votes from Republicans to demonstrate that a Trump conviction would seem all but impossible. He got 44 to join him.

Rubio told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that pressing ahead with impeaching Trump for inciting the January 6 Capitol riot was a ‘stupid’ waste of time, which he argued was damaging to America.

‘It’s not even constitutional,’ he told Cavuto. ‘Logic tells you that.

‘The automatic consequence of impeachment and trial, if you’re convicted, the automatic consequence is you’re removed from office. That’s the consequence.

‘You can’t remove Donald Trump from office. He’s not in office.’

Rubio said there was ‘no doubt that the president bears some responsibility for what happened.’

But, he insisted, as a private citizen he should be prosecuted through the criminal or civil courts, rather than impeached.

The 49-year-old former presidential candidate, who is widely considered to be weighing another run in 2024, said impeaching him was a sideshow for Democrats seeking publicity, and called it ‘vindictive’.

‘It’s about vengeance and retribution,’ he said.

Rubio argued that impeachment was a distraction from confronting the challenges facing the country, such as COVID-19, the economy and national security threats.

He warned that impeaching Trump ‘stokes a fire.’

‘This is a country that is already deeply divided,’ he said.

‘Politics is emotional. Now on that fire, we’re going to pour this gasoline and get it hotter.’

Rubio concluded that seeking to punish a president once they left office was ‘typical in the third world’, saying it set a dangerous precedent.

‘So there’s a lot of reasons why this is stupid and a terrible idea for the country,’ he said, describing it as ‘a clown show’ and ‘a joke’.

‘It’s not just a waste of time but it’s going to hurt America.

Cruz, who like Rubio challenged Trump for the 2016 nomination, and who like Rubio is also considered a 2024 contender, agreed that the impeachment was about ‘anger and rage.’

The Texan has been strongly criticized for continuing to challenge the election legitimacy, even in the hours after the mob overran Congress on January 6.

But he, in turn, hit back at his critics, accusing them of ignoring Joe Biden’s call for unity in his inaugural address.

‘Unfortunately the Congressional Democrats were not listening to a word he said,’ Cruz told Sean Hannity.

‘And the very first step that they took is to charge down the road of a partisan and divisive and angry impeachment trial.

‘And this is not driven by the needs of the country. This is driven by the partisan rage and the partisan anger that the Democrats feel. They hate Donald Trump and they are engaging in on an act that I think is petty, I think it is retribution, and that it is vindictive and a waste of time and so I think it’s time to move on.’

Graham, 65, who has been in regular contact with Trump since he left the White House, described the impeachment as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘ill-conceived.’

He said it had been rushed through in the House without witnesses and without Trump having legal representation, stating: ”I think it is a danger to the democracy and the presidency itself.’

Graham said that, if the Democrats attempt to bring forth witnesses in the senate trial, ‘you’re going to blow up the United States senate’.

He concluded: ‘Don’t do that, let’s get this travesty over with quickly.’ 

Paul, after his successful vote on Tuesday afternoon, suggested the trial would be swiftly dealt with. 

He told reporters the vote meant ‘the impeachment trial is dead on arrival.’

‘It’s one of the few times in Washington where a loss is actually a victory,’ he noted.  

The Republicans who went against Trump and with Democrats were Senators Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Pat Toomey. 

Collins later told reporters on Capitol Hill that the vote was indicative that Trump would be acquitted.

‘I think it’s pretty obvious from the vote today that it is extraordinary unlikely that the president will be convicted,’ she said. ‘Just do the math.’

Graham, who is acting as a liaison between Trump and the Republican senators, said he spoke to the former president Monday night.

‘He’s decompressing,’ Graham said. ‘He’s got a legal team he’s trying to organize and he just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and trial will be over in a couple of weeks, I think.’

Tuesday’s vote was a good sign for Trump. 

Ahead of it, Paul argued that trying a former president would violate the U.S. Constitution.

‘He is a private citizen,’ the senator said of Trump during remarks on the Senate floor.

Paul pointed that article one, section three of the Constitution states when the president of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy is presiding instead of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who sat over Trump’s first impeachment trial.

‘The Chief Justice’s absence demonstrate that this is not a trial of the president, but one of private citizen. Therefore I make a point of order that this proceeding, which would try a private citizen and not a president, a vice president or civil officer violates the Constitution, and is not an order,’ he said.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Paul’s theory nonsense and said it would give presidents a ‘constitutional get out of jail free card.’

‘The Senate has the power to try former officials and the reasons for that are basic common sense,’ he said.

‘It makes no sense whatsoever that a president or any official could could commit a heinous crime against our country and then defeat Congress’s impeachment powers and avoid a vote on disqualification by simply resigning or by waiting to commit that offense until their last few weeks in office.

‘The theory that the Senate cannot try former officials would amount to a constitutional get out of jail free card for any president who commits an impeachable offense,’ Schumer concluded.  

Earlier, in a speech on the Senate floor, Paul railed against Democrats, calling them ‘angry, unhinged partisans, deranged by their hatred of the former president.’

‘Shame on those who seek blame and revenge, and who choose to pervert a constitutional process while doing so,’ he said. ‘I want this body on record — every last person here.’

Ahead of the vote he told reporters on Capitol Hill he did not expect to come out victorious but expected to get at least 40 Republican senators to vote with him.

‘I think it’ll be enough to show that, you know, more than a third of the Senate thinks that the whole proceeding is unconstitutional, which will show that ultimately they don’t have the votes to do an impeachment,’ Paul said. 

‘This is purely about petty partisanship and rancor and bitterness,’ the Republican from Kentucky said. 

Before Paul made his objection, the 100 senators – 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans – were sworn in as Trump’s jury. 

‘Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump…you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help you God?,’ Leahy asked them.

‘I do,’ the senators replied.

After taking the oath, senators, in groups of four via alphabetical order, walked to the well of Senate to sign the oath book.

‘Here ye! Here ye! Here ye! All persons are commanded to keep silence on pain of imprisonment while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the Unites States an Article of Impeachment against Donald John Trump, former President of the United States,’ the clerk of the Senate reminded the lawmakers. 

Trump is the only president to have been impeached by the House of Representatives twice. And he is the first to face a trial after leaving office. He could be disqualified from holding future public office if convicted. 

The trial is expected to begin on February 9 but the article of impeachment was delivered to the Senate Monday night.

The House approved the single article of impeachment on January 13, accusing Trump of inciting an insurrection with his speech to his supporters before they stormed the Capitol on January 6, which resulted in five deaths and the interruption of the certification of the election. 

There was a debate among scholars over whether the Senate can hold a trial for Trump since he left office on January 20. 

Many experts have said ‘late impeachment’ is constitutional, arguing that presidents who engage in misconduct late in their terms should not be immune from the very process set out in the Constitution for holding them accountable.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday invited constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley to join them at their weekly luncheon to address senators questions on the constitutionality of holding an impeachment trial for a former president.

Turley wrote an article in 1999 where he came out in favor of trying former federal officials. 

‘I say that repeatedly that what I said in ’99 is true that obviously those three trials, they had a value other than removal because people were gone. And I explained that that value was the condemnation of conduct as well as possible disqualification. I still believe the historical statement in that,’ he told reporters on Capitol Hill after the luncheon.

And he confirmed he got many, many questions from the senators.

‘Yes. And no lunch,’ he said. 

At least 17 Republican would need to join all 50 Democrats in the evenly divided Senate for Trump to be convicted, a two-thirds threshold that appears unlikely to be reached. 

Trump remains a powerful force among Republicans and his supporters have vowed to mount election challenges to lawmakers in the party who support conviction.

Some Republicans have criticized Trump’s false claims of voting fraud and his failed efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s November 3 election victory. 

But no Senate Republicans have said definitively that they plan to vote to convict him.