{"id":66066,"date":"2021-01-27T10:30:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T10:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=66066"},"modified":"2021-01-27T10:30:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T10:30:49","slug":"republican-senators-signal-opposition-to-trump-impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=66066","title":{"rendered":"Republican senators signal opposition to Trump impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"News Desk: US Democrats\u2019 efforts to convict Donald Trump at his impeachment trial suffered a fresh blow Tuesday when almost all Republican senators backed dismissing the case, underlining the former President\u2019s continuing hold over the party.<\/p>\n

The motion failed after all 50 Democrats and only five Republicans in the Senate did not support the push to throw out the case before the trial has begun.<\/p>\n

The result confirmed Democrats will struggle to persuade 17 Republican senators \u2014 the number needed for the required two-thirds majority \u2014 to vote to convict Trump.<\/p>\n

Rand Paul, Republican senator from Kentucky, raised a point of order to hold a vote on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial as Trump has left office.<\/p>\n

Democrats then called for a vote to kill the point of order, winning 55-45.<\/p>\n

Paul said afterwards \u201cthat 45 Senators agreed that this sham of a \u2018trial\u2019 is unconstitutional\u2026 This \u2018trial\u2019 is dead on arrival in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Leahy, the 80-year-old senator presiding over the trial, was hospitalized after Tuesday\u2019s proceedings during which he sounded hoarse and unwell as lawmakers were sworn in as jurors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Attending Physician recommended that he be taken to a local hospital for observation, where he is now, and where he is being evaluated,\u201d his spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Leahy, who was elected in 1974, is presiding as he is the senior senator of the party with the majority in the Senate, currently the Democrats.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives on Monday presented a single article of impeachment to the upper chamber accusing Trump of inciting the storming of the Capitol earlier this month, setting in motion the first-ever impeachment trial of a former president.<\/p>\n

The trial of Trump, who was impeached by the Democratic-majority House for an unprecedented second time, is to begin the week of February 8.<\/p>\n

Trump \u2014 winner of 74 million votes in his loss to Biden on November 3 and reportedly sitting on some $70 million in campaign funds \u2014 wants Republican senators to consider their own futures before they dare cross him.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s main way of applying pressure while out of office is to threaten disloyal legislators with support for their challengers in party primary votes ahead of the 2022 midterms.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s endorsement on Monday of his former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in her bid to become governor of Arkansas was a first flexing of political muscle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Desk: US Democrats\u2019 efforts to convict Donald Trump at his impeachment trial suffered a fresh blow Tuesday when almost all Republican senators backed dismissing the case, underlining the former President\u2019s continuing hold over the party. The motion failed after all 50 Democrats and only five Republicans in the Senate did not support the push […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n