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Saturday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement in response to the Senate’s 57-43 vote to acquit former President Trump:
“For four years, former President Trump spewed rhetoric of hate and menacing division, steadily inflaming tensions and raising the temperature of our national discourse. The horrific events of January 6th were the natural result of years of extremist sympathies and subversion of democratic norms. It is not in doubt, nor has it ever been: Trump holds direct responsibility for having incited an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol. The largest ever bipartisan Senate vote to convict is proof of his unforgivable transgressions.
“I am deeply grateful to the remarkable House Impeachment Managers and staff members—led by the peerless Lead Impeachment Manager Rep. Raskin—who prosecuted the case with unflagging brilliance and poise. Fifty-seven Senators—Democrats and Republicans both—voted today with their conscience to convict Trump. The seven Republicans who voted to convict are additional proof of the reprehensibility of Trump’s misconduct—their colleagues must recognize that this trial offered not a test of partisanship but rather one of morality. Forty-three Republican senators, whose lack of courage allowed them to exculpate the man guilty of instigating the attack that placed their own lives in peril, failed that test today.
“Even Majority Leader McConnell conceded that the House Managers proved the case beyond a doubt. It is readily apparent that for the Senators who voted to acquit, no evidence whatsoever would have been enough to convict. The facts are clear and the truth is stark—forty-three Senate Republicans today chose self-interest over our democracy. History will not soon forget their cowardice.”
