The U.S. Senate declared former President Donald Trump's second impeachment as constitutional on Tuesday causing the proceedings to continue.
The Blaze reported that the Senate decided to continue with Trump's impeachment trial after the former president's legal counsels failed to clearly present its unconstitutionality.
In a final vote of 56-44, Democrats overruled the decision as they were able to tag along six Republicans on their side on the impeachment being constitutional despite Trump being not in office anymore.
According to The Blaze, the six Republican senators who sided with the Democrats to push with the impeachment were Louisiana's Bill Cassidy, Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Utah's Mitt Romney, Nebraska's Ben Sasse, and Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey.
Most notable of those who voted against the constitutionality of the impeachment was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who previously said he was pro-impeachment. Similarly, Murkowski was a swing vote after being confused by Trump's Attorney Bruce Castor in terms of his presentation of the unconstitutionality of the impeachment, The Blaze said.
"I was really stunned at the first attorney who presented for former President Trump. I couldn't figure out where he was going," The Blaze quoted Murkowski in explaining.
"It did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take," Collins said as per The Blaze.
"If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former Pres. Trump's lawyers. The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president's team did not," Cassidy pointed out in a statement.
NPR reported that the Democrats effectively used a video on the January 6 event to win the votes for the impeachment's constitutionality alongside Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin's statement that Trump's actions "constitute high crimes and misdeamenors" and tearful emotional appeal while recounting his family's experience of the event.
The video the Democrats played during the trial, however, was selectively edited to leave out Trump's call for his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically" let their voices be heard, Breitbart noted.
Nevertheless. House managers, as per NPR, were able to address the scholarly interpretation of the Constitution and rebut the claims that a president can only be impeached while he is in office.
"Their argument is that if you commit an impeachable offense in your last few weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity. You get away with it," Raskin said. NPR said he called this the "January exception" to impeachment.
NPR pointed out that Trumps legal counsel "offered an at-times-rambling defense" that was multipronged in terms of it being unconstitutional, that Trump's comments were based his First Amendment right, and that the mob that caused the riot at the Capitol was not Trump's responsibility.
Castor's "meandering and long-winded opening argument," according to NPR, did not convince the Democrats that it is a "partisan maneuver" that would affect future impeachments. The same went for David Schoen, one of Trump's legal counsels, who spoke lengthily on the impeachment's constitutional issues considering Trump is already a "private citizen."
The Blaze said that two-thirds of the Senate or 67 senators is needed for Trump to be convicted for the impeachment, which purports him for "inciting violence."
Earlier reports indicated that Trump shouldn't be blamed for what happened on Jan. 6.
Democrat and The George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley earlier said President Trump "never actually called for violence or a riot." Other reports indicated that leftist groups such as Antifa already staged a protest in the Capitol while Trump hasn't finished speaking at the Ellipse yet. Antifa and BLM members were also seen infiltrating the Trump supporters that day.
