Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is planning to hold an acquittal vote to clear President Donald Trump of all charges rather than a simple-majority dismissal of the impeachment articles to avoid a possible tie or nail-biter conclusion.
According to CNN, the Constitution requires 67 votes to convict Trump and remove him from office. Republicans, with their 53-seat majority, are confident that Democrats would not be able to rustle up enough defections to make that result a real possibility.
And by going for acquittal, McConnell would avoid any possible complications that could arise from a dismissal vote, which only requires 51 votes. Due to the obvious conflict of interest, Vice President Mike Pence would be barred from tie-breaking in that situation. Instead, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts would be called in to preside over the Senate trial, and any tied motions would fail.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) echoed this thinking to CNN, saying that it would make “more sense” to vote for acquittal or conviction than to “decide this on a 51-vote threshold, with the potential tie and all the recriminations that would flow from that.”
Really? CNN says this? We’re relying on CNN? Jebus wept.
We’ll give him a fair trial and then tell him, “Off you go, then”.
This is a real big tell from McConnell. It means he thinks there is a real possibility that there are 50+ votes against Trump in the Senate. By having the 67 threshold vote rather than the 51 threshold vote, he can spin that the vote “failed” even if it gets a majority of the Senate.
Trump’s going to cheat.
And Moscow McConnell is okay with that.
The brazenness in the title of the article “McConnell Plans for Acquittal Vote” will cement McConnell as a denizen of the dregs of the United States Senate.
I’m guessing here, but it would seem to me that opting for convict/acquit rather than dismiss means they at least have to put on the case then, right?