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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) shocked his fellow Republican senators with a dramatic floor speech announcing he would vote to convict President Trump on the impeachment charge of abuse of power. Romney announced his decision before the Senate voted to acquit Trump and after fellow GOP colleagues such as Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) had already announced they would not vote to convict Trump.
While other Senate Republicans chided Trump for “inappropriate” conduct, Romney said “the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust” and “a flagrant assault on our electoral rights.”
“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a ‘high crime and misdemeanor.’ Yes, he did,” he said. Romney, however, voted against the second article of impeachment accusing the president of obstruction of Congress, which failed along strict party lines.
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The trial proceedings Feb 3, Feb 4 and Feb 5 floor time was reserved for senators who wanted to deliver speeches on the Senate floor about the impeachment process and how they plan to vote.
The original clips contained more than 8 minutes of video, this compressed version is only 6 minutes after removal of silences and pauses.
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Sen. Mitt Romney's emotional explanation of his vote to convict Trump (Feb 5, 2020) https://t.co/IgOAE471k7
— HYGO News (@HygoNews) February 6, 2020
Transcript
The Constitution is at the foundation of our Republic’s success, and we each strive not to lose sight of our promise to defend it. The Constitution established the vehicle of impeachment that has occupied both houses of Congress for these many days. We have labored to faithfully execute our responsibilities to it. We have arrived at different judgments, but I hope we respect each other’s good faith.
The allegations made in the articles of impeachment are very serious. As a Senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise “impartial justice.” I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the President, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.
The House Managers presented evidence supporting their case; the White House counsel disputed that case. In addition, the President’s team presented three defenses: first, that there can be no impeachment without a statutory crime; second, that the Bidens’ conduct justified the President’s actions; and third that the judgement of the President’s actions should be left to the voters. Let me first address each of those defenses.
The historic meaning of the words “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the writings of the Founders and my own reasoned judgement convince me that a president can indeed commit acts against the public trust that are so egregious that while they are not statutory crimes, they would demand removal from office. To maintain that the lack of a codified and comprehensive list of all the outrageous acts that a president might conceivably commit renders Congress powerless to remove a president defies reason.