West Virginia’s senators stayed with their respective political party when it came time to decide whether to convict or acquit President Trump on two House articles of impeachment.
Shelley Moore Capito, R-WVa., did what she said she would do in a speech Tuesday in the well of the Senate and, alomng with all but one of her Republican colleagues, helped keep President Trump in office.
After voting for acquittal, Capito sent out a press release that said, in part, that the House impeachment process was “partisan, political, and denied President Trump his basic due process rights.”
“Having considered the arguments and evidence, the House’s articles of impeachment do not provide me with a sufficient rationale for reversing the 2016 election and removing President Trump from the ballot in 2020.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WVa, thought differently – and voted as such along with all Democrats.
In voting for conviction on both counts, Manchin said, “The evidence presented by the House Managers, including video testimony of witnesses under oath in the House of Representatives, clearly supports the charges brought against the President in the articles of impeachment.”
Manchin, who had said prior to the vote that he was struggling with his decision, said House investigators had presented a thorough case, but the Senate failed its responsibilities but not seeking additional witnesses and documents. The Senate, under Republican control, rejected a bid by Democrats last week to request additional White House papers and to call for testimony.
“I have always wanted a fair trial in the Senate, and I am disappointed the President, his counsel, and a majority of my Republican colleagues decided not to support the inclusion of additional witnesses and documents during the trial, resulting in the first Senate impeachment trial of a President without witnesses,” Manchin wrote in a press release. “And while the President may assert executive privilege, that privilege has limits and is not absolute. Despite the false claim that a President can do no wrong, the President is not entitled to act with blatant disregard for an equal branch of government or use the superpower status of the United States to condition our support of democracy and our allies on any political favor."
Manchin on Monday suggested a resolution censuring the president for his actions. Capito said she did not support the proposal, adding there was little support among her Republican colleagues for it.
“Having considered the arguments and evidence,” Capito said in her press release on Wednesday after the historic vote, “the House’s articles of impeachment do not provide me with a sufficient rationale for reversing the 2016 election and removing President Trump from the ballot in 2020.
“That is especially true considering the partisan nature of this impeachment process,” Capito stated. “In the cases of President Nixon and President Clinton, there was significant support from House members of the president’s party for opening impeachment inquiries. Not a single member of the president’s party voted in the House of Representatives to start an impeachment inquiry or to adopt either article of impeachment against President Trump.”
Capito was especially uneasy with what she saw as partisan poilitics by the House Democrats whose articles of impeaqchment did not attract a single Republican vote.
“The Senate has never in our history removed a president from office following an impeachment trial, and our founding fathers recognized that impeachment should not be used as a blunt instrument of partisanship,” Capito wrote in her press release. “Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 65 that in impeachment, ‘there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.’ “
History weighed on Manchin’s decision, too.
“Voting whether or not to remove a sitting President has been a truly difficult decision, and after listening to the arguments presented by both sides, I have reached my conclusion reluctantly,” he wrote in his press release. “I must vote yes on the articles of impeachment. I take no pleasure in these votes, and am saddened this is the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren. I have always wanted this President, and every President to succeed, but I deeply love our country and must do what I think is best for the nation.”