USA (Washington Insider Magazine)—Republican senators who voted in favor of Trump say they don’t lament their votes years later. They voted to pardon former President Trump during his second trial after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. They contended that Trump will be the party’s leader again in 2024.
One Republican senator who often blames Trump’s behavior, however, voted to acquit Trump of provoking insurrection and expressed they would have voted the same way if given a second chance after understanding the result.
“The way I look at it is the standard is high because you’re undermining the will of the American people,” the senator said of Trump’s post-Jan. 6 impeachment trial. “If you can’t meet that threshold, convicting to keep out of office is inappropriate.”
A second Republican senator, who was repeatedly critical of Trump, voted to acquit and demanded anonymity to look back in history to review that choice, stated it was clear at the time that whatever Republican voted to charge Trump would confront political criticism.
The senator stated that even if Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell desired to rid his party of Trump at the time, it could have cost him his leadership position if he voted to sentence.
“I don’t think so,” the senator expressed when questioned whether McConnell would have voted differently had he known that Trump would come back to conquer the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
“I think he would have made the calculated decision that he would not have been able to be the caucus leader after that. He would have been deciding to be a senior committeeman for the next six years,” the senator speculated of his long-time colleague from Kentucky.
Former Speaker Paul Ryan commented in a recent interview that he acknowledges many Republicans on Capitol Hill would have voted differently on impeachment and blocking Trump from future office if they had known he would restore himself politically to succeed a third presidential nomination.
“I think there are a lot of people in Congress, good friends of mine, who would take [their] vote back if they could because I think a lot of these members of Congress — like on the second impeachment — they thought Trump was dead. They thought after Jan. 6 he wasn’t going to have a comeback, he was dead,” he expressed.
However, GOP senators who voted to impeach Trump contended they don’t regret their decision.
“I have no regrets,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of seven Republican senators who voted to sentence Trump for instigating riots in 2021.
Her thoughts are similar to Ryan’s in that Murkowski doubts some of her GOP colleagues have regrets about their decision. She admired Trump’s response, stating that many Republicans believed Trump was terminated politically after the horrible mess of Jan. 6, 2021.
“I think they’re examining this and [think,] ‘It’s like a zombie coming back from the dead.’ He was a political roadkill. There are two impeachments and four indictments, and you’re telling me he’s the heir apparent?”
However, Murkowski expressed that none of her colleagues who voted to acquit Trump is ready to confess to making a mistake, even personally.
“Nobody’s saying it out loud. But, again, I certainly have no regrets,” she said, stating that Ryan, the former Speaker, is “a smart guy” and “he was around a lot of people who kind of roamed the plank for Donald Trump.”
“The party would be in a lot better shape if he were not the prospective nominee, and right now, that’s how it looks. Maybe Nikki Haley can do a miracle,” Murkowski stated, directing to the former South Carolina governor who is limiting Trump’s lead in New Hampshire ahead of its immediate contest.
Sen. Mitt Romney, who voted to condemn and expel Trump from office after his first and second impeachment trials, giggled about Ryan’s assertion that many Republicans wish they had a do-over on their impeachment vote.
“I love Paul; he has a source of information I don’t. I’m not going to confirm or deny. I don’t have any questions about my vote. No one has come to me and said, ‘I wish I had a different vote,’” he stated.
Instead, Romney said colleagues described him as “they respect someone who votes their conscience.”
“I wish everybody would have voted [as] I did on almost everything, including impeachment,” he said. “There’s no question the Republican Party would be better off without Donald Trump. We’re a populist party now, which is fueled by resentment and anger, and that’s a dead-end street.” McConnell informed colleagues a week after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that he was open to charging Trump.
