For the few Republicans in Congress who voted alongside Democrats in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, the backlash has been swift and relentless.
Some of the seven senators who condemned Trump for inciting a deadly uprising in the Capitol are criticized and criticized by their parties. A Republican who voted to indict Trump in the House was reportedly denounced by members of his own family.
“Oh my God, what a disappointment you are for us and for God!” Read a letter to Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. Signed by several family members who support Trump, the New York Times reported on Monday.
“We are now very embarrassed that we are related to you. You embarrassed the family name Kinzinger!” Read the January 8th letter.
The rift between Republicans who condemned Trump for the Jan. 6 invasion and those who want to keep him as party leader comes as the GOP hopes to win back the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. Trump, who maintains high approval among Republicans, has made a strong statement that he plans to remain active in politics.
After Trump’s acquittal in the Senate on Saturday, some of the Republicans who sided with the Democrats in the trial were reprimanded in their states.
Senator Richard Burr, RN.C., was unanimously censored by the Central Committee of the Republican Party of North Carolina following his vote to convict. The party said in a statement that it “agrees with a strong majority of Republicans in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate that the Democratic-led attempt to indict a former president is outside the United States Constitution.”
Burr’s move took many by surprise after previously voting against continuing the process on constitutional grounds.
Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Has reportedly been censored by some county-level Republican parties for his vote in condemnation of Trump. “His betrayal of the constitution and his oath of office required conviction,” Toomey tweeted after the vote.
“We didn’t send him there to choose his conscience” or “do the right thing” or whatever he said, “said Dave Ball, chairman of the Washington County Republican Party, in an interview with a local CBS affiliate.” We sent him there to represent us. “
Neither Burr nor Toomey are seeking re-election in 2022. Only one GOP Senator who voted for the conviction, Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, will face the electorate in the next election cycle.
“This was a consequence on many levels, but I cannot allow the importance of my vote to be devalued by whether I think it is helpful for my political ambitions or not,” said Murkowski in an interview after the vote, Politico reported.
The Republican Party of Maine could convict Senator Susan Collins for her conviction, the Bangor Daily News reported on Monday.
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy has split with Republicans twice – first by voting that the Senate has jurisdiction over a former president and then by voting on condemnation of Trump. “I have no illusions that this is a popular decision,” Cassidy tweeted on Monday.
His state’s Republican Party reprimanded him hours after the final vote.
Republican Sens. Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Mitt Romney from Utah also voted for the conviction.
“Of course there is a move at the county and state levels across the country to make the Republican Party even more focused on Donald Trump’s personality, but I don’t think that’s healthy,” Sasse told NPR on Tuesday morning after some Republicans moved from Nebraska were to blame him.
Even senators who voted for the acquittal were criticized by other Republicans after accusing Trump of wrongdoing.
Minutes after the “not guilty” vote in the process, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Said that Trump “is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., an ally of the former president, called McConnell’s speech on Sunday “an outlier in terms of what Republicans think about it”.
Other Republican leaders are divided over Trump’s role in the party following his loss of election to President Joe Biden and the invasion of the Capitol.
Kevin McCarthy, minority chairman of the House of Representatives, R-Calif., Met with Trump in Florida in late January. Weeks earlier, on the floor of the house, McCarthy said Trump was responsible for the January 6 uprising.
But after the private meeting in Palm Beach, McCarthy said in a statement: “Today President Trump has pledged to support the Republican election in the House and Senate in 2022.”
“A united conservative movement will strengthen the bonds of our citizens and uphold the freedoms on which our country was founded,” said McCarthy’s statement.
Even under the House’s Republican leadership, Trump split his party. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican of House No. 3, was censored by her state’s GOP earlier this month after she voted in favor of the Trump charge.
