DERRY, N.H. — Vermont’s senators voted to remove President Donald Trump from office Wednesday in the third Senate impeachment trial in United States history.
However, those making the case for Trump’s removal only managed to flip one Republican vote on the two impeachment charges, falling far short of the two-thirds majority needed to oust a sitting president.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the dean of the Senate, spoke on the floor to explain his vote. He criticized Congress for failing to be a check on a “brazen abuse of executive power.”
“The only lesson the president has learned from this trial is how easily he can get away with egregious, illegal misconduct,” he said. “This is a dark day.”
Campaigning in Derry, New Hampshire, Wednesday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made a similar statement — with his tie.
“Today is a kind of serious and solemn day for the country,” said Sanders, who usually hits the campaign trail wearing a collared shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, and a sweater underneath his navy blazer.
“And the reason I’m wearing a tie, is I’m going to be on a plane in a few minutes, going to Washington, D.C., to vote for the impeachment of President Trump,” he added.
Senators voted almost entirely along party lines to keep Trump in office, first for an abuse of power charge and then obstruction of Congress. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the sole Republican who voted for removal, but only on the abuse of power charge.
“This is serious business,” Sanders told supporters in Derry. “Something I have taken seriously and frankly I would have preferred to be campaigning in New Hampshire and Iowa during the period, but impeachment is a rarity.”
Sanders strayed from his usual stump speech to spend almost 10 minutes criticizing the president, who has typically only received passing comment from the Vermont senator during his campaign events this year.
“This impeachment vote is not about policy, this is about abuse of power,” he said about deciding Trump is guilty of withholding military aid to Ukraine unless an investigation into the Biden family was publicly announced.
Sanders also borrowed an analogy from Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., asking if it would be acceptable for anyone in elected office to withhold funding unless an entity agreed to investigate a private citizen for personal gain.
“Every member of the Congress and the president swears an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. When you’re not respecting the Constitution, when you think you are above the law,” Sanders said. “That is what the vote today is about.”
Both Sanders and Leahy have long been critics of the president, and had joined Democrats in calling for more testimony and evidence to be introduced in the Senate proceedings. These efforts were blocked by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his Republican caucus.
With the Senate Republican rules in play, Leahy, who deposed key witnesses including Monica Lewinsky during the Clinton impeachment trial, was left with a minor role in the Trump trial.
However, all senators, including Leahy and Sanders, had the chance to question the House members presenting the Democrats’ case and the president’s defense.
Leahy, for his part, used his question to ask House managers about the claim by the president’s lawyers that the nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine was released before a public investigation into the Biden family was announced, and therefore proves there were no unsavory dealings.
Sanders meanwhile asked why senators should believe any of Trump’s defense in the trial, given his penchant for spreading falsehoods.
“Given the media has documented President Trump’s thousands of lies while in office — more than 16,200 as of January 20 — why would we be expected to believe that anything President Trump says has credibility?” Sanders queried last week.
With both senators deciding to impeach Trump, all three of Vermont’s congressional delegation will have voted to remove the president from office, in spite of his acquittal.
“The votes may not be there to impeach Trump, but I am absolutely confident that in November, the votes will be there to defeat Trump,” Sanders bellowed Tuesday in New Hampshire to cheers from the crowd.
