Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski among Republicans who voted for the conviction of Trump

Though the US Senate voted to acquit Donald
Trump in the second impeachment trial of the former president, there were some
senators from his own Republican party who sided with the democrats in the
vote.

The final vote was 57 to 43 majority voting
for conviction but the tally fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict.

Republican Senators Richard Burr of North
Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowksi of
Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of
Pennsylvania voted to convict Trump in the trial on Saturday.

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In his first impeachment trial, Trump had only
received only one guilty vote from the Republican party, that of Senator Romney.

Richard Burr and Pat Toomey are retiring from
the Senate at the end of 2022 and will not be going for re-election. Earlier,
Burr had voted to declare the trial unconstitutional.

Burr clarified that while he believed the
trial was unconstitutional, he decided to put that aside once the Senate voted
to proceed with the trial and declared it constitutional.

 “As I said on January 6th, the President
bears responsibility for these tragic events. The evidence is compelling that
President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch
of government and that the charge rises to the level of high Crimes and
Misdemeanours. Therefore, I have voted to convict,” CNN quoted Burr’s
statement.

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Earlier, Cassidy also said that the impeachment is unconstitutional but this time changed his mind. The Louisiana senator left the chamber before the vote was done Saturday.

In a statement, Sasse blasted Trump’s repeated lies about the election having been stolen from him and said, “The president abused his power while in office and the House of Representatives impeached him while he was still in office.”

After the vote concluded, Toomey told reporters it was the “right call” to vote to convict Trump.

 The majority of Republicans, however, voted against conviction as they stood firm on their stance of the trial being unconstitutional.