U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today released the following statement regarding the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial:

“The impeachment trial is over and former President Trump has been acquitted. My vote to acquit should not be viewed as exoneration for his conduct on January 6, 2021, or in the days and weeks leading up to it. What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable.

“But he is no longer president. The Constitution is clear that the primary purpose of impeachment is removal from office, and that’s what I believe the Founders intended. I have great concerns with the Senate punishing a private citizen with the sole intent of disqualifying him from holding future office. Our Founders designed impeachment to be an extreme remedy and cautioned against its use as a political weapon. We should heed their caution. In our democracy, matters of representation should be left with the people, as the Founders intended.

“I have faith in the American people and the strength of our democracy.”

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U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement after voting against the articles of impeachment brought against former President Trump.

“I’ve said all along that impeaching former President Trump is a moot point as the Constitution is clear that removal from office is the primary purpose of impeachment. Our Founding Fathers intended the process of impeachment to remove public officials from office, not to punish private citizens. After carefully listening to every minute of the presentations made by the House Managers and the former president’s legal team, I am convinced that the Senate does not have jurisdiction to render a judgement against the former president. Therefore, I voted not guilty. It is now time to get back to the work of the American people.”
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– Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) released the following statement after voting against the article of impeachment:

“It remains true that Congress simply does not have the constitutional authority to impeach a former president. And rather than take its take time to hold hearings and assess all evidence, the House had a rushed impeachment process that denied President Trump due process. Accordingly, I voted to acquit President Trump. It is now time to come together and move forward,” said Senator Fischer.

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U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today detailed the constitutional, precedential, factual and legal analyses supporting his vote to find former President Donald Trump not guilty of the House of Representatives’ article of impeachment.

In his statement for the Senate record, Grassley reiterated that the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was an assault on democracy itself, and that former President Trump had displayed poor leadership, but stated that the impeachment managers for the House of Representatives failed to prove their case.

“We do not have the authority to try a private citizen like former President Trump. Even if we did, he should have been accorded the protections of due process of law in his trial. And even if we assume he has been, the House Managers still did not prove that he committed incitement to insurrection, the specific crime of which he stands accused. This does not excuse President Trump’s conduct on and around January 6th of this year,”

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U.S. Senator Ben Sasse issued the following statement regarding the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump:

“An impeachment trial is a public declaration of what a president’s oath of office means and what behavior that oath demands of presidents in the future. But here’s the sad reality: If we were talking about a Democratic president, most Republicans and most Democrats would simply swap sides. Tribalism is a hell of a drug, but our oath to the Constitution means we’re constrained to the facts. Here are the three key points to this debate:

“First, President Trump lied that he ‘won the election by a landslide.’ He lied about widespread voter fraud, spreading conspiracy theories despite losing 60 straight court challenges, many of his losses handed down by great judges he nominated. He tried to intimidate the Georgia secretary of state to ‘find votes’ and overturn that state’s election. He publicly and falsely declared that Vice President Pence could break his constitutional oath and simply declare a different outcome. The president repeated these lies when summoning his crowd — parts of which were widely known to be violent — to Capitol Hill to intimidate Vice President Pence and Congress into not fulfilling our constitutional duties. Those lies had consequences, endangering the life of the vice president and bringing us dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis. Each of these actions are violations of a president’s oath of office.

“Second, political violence is evil whether it happens in Portland or at the United States Capitol. Violent mobs are always repugnant. Because many on the left ignored Portland’s violence, the former president and some of his allies have now given themselves permission to ignore the violence by those supposedly on ‘their side.’ No. The answer to an ugly double standard cannot be the elimination of all standards. If we allow tribalism to repeatedly blind us against defending our institutions, we will lose them.

“Third, Congress is a weaker institution than the Founders intended, and it is likely to shrivel still smaller. A lot of Republicans talk about restoring Congress’ power from an already over-aggressive executive branch. Conservatives regularly denounce executive overreach – but we ought primarily to denounce legislative impotence. This trial is constitutional because the president abused his power while in office and the House of Representatives impeached him while he was still in office. If Congress cannot forcefully respond to an intimidation attack on Article I instigated by the head of Article II, our constitutional balance will be permanently tilted. A weak and timid Congress will increasingly submit to an emboldened and empowered presidency. That’s unacceptable. This institution needs to respect itself enough to tell the executive that some lines cannot be crossed.

“On election night 2014, I promised Nebraskans I’d always vote my conscience even if it was against the partisan stream. In my first speech here in the Senate in November 2015, I promised to speak out when a president – even of my own party – exceeds his or her powers. I cannot go back on my word, and Congress cannot lower our standards on such a grave matter, simply because it is politically convenient. I must vote to convict.”