Senators voted Wednesday to acquit President Donald Trump of two articles of impeachment–abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump will remain in office after Democrats fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to remove him.
Voting began expected at 4 p.m. Watch live below, courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwoAUNJgLlU
Acquital was all but ensured after the Senate narrowly voted Friday not to call witnesses or introduce new evidence in the trial.
For the past two days, senators have been giving speeches to explain why they will vote to convict or acquit the president. Those speeches continued Wednesday leading up to the vote, with members so far dividing along party lines.
On Tuesday, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) took to the Senate floor to say that Trump's actions were wrong and inappropriate, but not worthy of removal for office. Portman said he wouldn't vote to censure Trump, either.
"There could be circumstances where a crime isn't necessary for an impeachment," Portman said. "Without a crime, it's even a higher bar for those who advocate for a conviction, and that higher bar is not met here."
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) planned to give his speech Wednesday, after announcing he would vote to convict and remove Trump from office.
Two-thirds of senators in the Republican-held chamber are required to remove the president. In the end, only Utah Sen. Mitt Romney voted with Democrats on the first article of impeachment, which failed 52-48. The second article failed 53-47.
Trump is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. Democrats argue Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals is a threat to U.S. democracy.
Meanwhile, Republicans say Democrats have been trying to impeach Trump since he took office and rushed through impeachment in an attempt to remove the president from ballot in the 2020 presidential election.
