Trump acquitted, as expected

Seven Republicans voted guilty.

Lisa Murkowski*,

Ben Sasse,

Mitt Romney,

Pat Toomey,

Susan Collins,

Richard Burr,

Bill Cassidy

The Dems needed 17 to convict.

A very important point:

*Murkowski is especially courageous, since she's up for reelection next year.

“If I can't say what I believe that our president should stand for, then why should I ask Alaskans to stand with me?” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in a lengthy interview after she joined six other Republicans to convict Trump. “This was consequential on many levels, but I cannot allow the significance of my vote, to be devalued by whether or not I feel that this is helpful for my political ambitions.”

Trump won Alaska by 10 points in 2020, a sign that many in the state will be upset about her vote.

[...]

The moderate Republican also voted against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, considered convicting Trump in 2020 and bristled at her party’s moves to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before the November election last fall.

[...]

As she entered her Capitol hideaway to finish her official statement on her vote to convict Trump, she gestured at where there had been trash and broken glass from rioters that desecrated the building and recalled the sound of a police officer “retching” because he’d been sprayed with pepper spray. She said what made her “soul happy” on Saturday was the memory that Congress finished certifying the election later that day.

“We did it because we had some extraordinary men and women that were willing to stand up and defend and protect. And that was good,” she said. “I just wish that Donald Trump had been one of them.”

  Politico

As do we.

UPDATE:

And Mitch is now saying Trump's actions were a disgraceful dereliction of duty; that Trump was practically and morally responsible for the insurrection. Just going on and on ripping Trump for inciting the insurrection. He's essentially restating the entire House managers' case.  Yet McConnell voted to acquit. He's such a piece of shit.

Susan Collins also felt the need to get her statement written into the record, since she voted to convict.

Reference, in case you missed it.

Transcript

Never forget that McConnell is both shrewd and evil.

UPDATE: