Votes To Convict Trump in the Senate Aren’t There—So Far

Jan. 23 , 2021 (EIRNS)—The British and their allies in Washington are scheming on how to wring a conviction against Donald Trump out of the Senate, when his impeachment case goes to trial on Feb. 8. They need 67 votes, which means all 50 Democrats and at least 17 Republicans. Even a highly mobilized CNN admits that, at this point, they don’t have it.

The British are hell-bent on getting a conviction, so that they can immediately proceed to bar Trump from ever holding elective office again, which would only require a simple majority in the Senate. Why the insistence? “Trump created a cult of personality that is hard to dismantle,” a former senior Republican official was quoted. “Conviction could do that.”

But that’s not so simple, and they know it. A Reuters poll shows how totally divided the country is on all such issues: 9 out of 10 Democrats polled think Trump should be convicted by the Senate and barred from politics; less than 2 out of 10 Republicans share that view. Sen. Lindsey Graham put a sharp point on it: “If you’re wanting to erase Donald Trump from the party, you’re going to get erased,” Graham said on Fox News Jan. 20. “This idea of moving forward without Donald Trump in the Republican Party is a disaster for the Republican Party.”

Pressure is being applied to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to whip enough Republican Senators into line to convict Trump, but McConnell is also being heavily pressured by pro-Trump Senators and others.