President Donald Trump was acquitted from both of House Democrats’ partisan articles of impeachment on Tuesday when Senators cast their votes in the impeachment trial.
On the first article of impeachment on abuse of power, Trump was acquitted in a 52-48 vote.
Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney was the only Republican to defect from the party and to vote for conviction, the first time in U.S. history that a member of the president’s own party has voted to remove the president.
On the second article of impeachment, for obstruction of Congress, Trump was exonerated in a 53-47 vote.
“The Senate, having tried Donald John Trump, President of the United States, upon two articles of impeachment exhibited against him by the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “It is therefore ordered and adjudged the said Donald John Trump be, and he is hereby, acquitted of the charges in said articles.”
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham responded to the acquittal in a statement, saying, “Today, the sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of President Donald J. Trump. As we have said all along, he is not guilty. The Senate voted to reject the baseless articles of impeachment, and only the President’s political opponents – all Democrats, and one failed Republican presidential candidate – voted for the manufactured impeachment articles.”
Grisham continued, “In what has now become a consistent tradition for Democrats, this was yet another witch-hunt that deprived the President of his due process rights and was based on a series of lies. Rep. Adam Schiff lied to Congress and the American people with a totally made up statement about the President’s phone call. Will there be no retribution? Speaker Nancy Pelosi also lied to the American people about the need to swiftly pass impeachment articles they dreamt up, only to sit on them for a month before sending over to the Senate. In the Senate, the Democrats continued to make their political motivations clear – Rep. Schiff proclaimed the issues “cannot be decided at the ballot box” – proving once again they think they know better than the voters of this country. This entire effort by the Democrats was aimed at overturning the results of the 2016 election and interfering with the 2020 election.”
Grisham concluded, “Throughout this wholly corrupt process, President Trump successfully advanced the interests of the United States and remained focused on the issues that matter to Americans. He spent his time achieving real victories for the people of this country, and the Democrats – once again – have nothing to show for their fraudulent schemes. The President is pleased to put this latest chapter of shameful behavior by the Democrats in the past, and looks forward to continuing his work on behalf of the American people in 2020 and beyond.”
