The U.S. Senate voted on the House of Representatives’ articles of impeachment Wednesday afternoon to decide whether or not President Donald Trump should be acquitted or removed from office.
The Senate took roll call votes to tally up the votes on each article of impeachment. On the first article of impeachment, abuse of executive power, Trump was found not guilty on the first article of impeachment with 48 voting for conviction and 52 voting for acquittal. Trump was also found not guilty on the second article of impeachment, obstruction of congress, with 47 voting for conviction and 53 voting for acquittal.
Just hours before, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced that he would vote to convict the president on the first article of impeachment. With this exception, most senators voted along party lines.
Just moments before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed the Senate in a final speech. “The United States Senate was made for moments like this. The framers predicted that factional fever might dominate House majorities from time to time,” he said. “They knew the country would need a firewall to keep partisan flames from scorching our Republic. So they created the Senate.”
He added, “We will reject this incoherent case that comes nowhere near justifying the first presidential removal in history. This partisan impeachment will end today.”
The impeachment vote ended with McConnell awarding Supreme Court Justice John Roberts with a golden gavel for his service in overseeing the impeachment trial.
These votes ended the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. They ended in a victory for Trump after five months of scandals that started with the phone call with Ukrainian President.
