Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman announced their decision on why they voted the way they did during Wednesday’s historic Senate impeachment vote.
As expected, these senators’ decisions went along party lines. Brown, a Democrat, said “yes” to articles of impeachment, and Portman, a Republican, said “no” to the articles.
According to Brown’s press release, he believed Trump abused his power as president by asking a foreign government for a political favor to help his political campaign, and then obstructed Congress by blocking witnesses from testifying during the impeachment process.
“Over the course of this trial we heard overwhelming evidence that President Trump did things Richard Nixon never did – he extorted a bribe from a foreign leader, to put his own presidential campaign above the American people he swore an oath to serve, Brown said. “If we acquit this President, it sets a clear, dangerous precedent – that you can abuse your office, and Congress will look the other way.”
Brown thought the president and Republicans blocked evidence during the Senate impeachment trial including not allowing new witnesses.
“One of our fundamental American values is that we have no kings, no nobility, no oligarchs in this country – no matter how rich, no matter how powerful, everyone can and should be held accountable,” he said.
On the other hand, Portman voted “no” on impeachment because he felt the actions the president is accused of did not arise to impeachment.
When Portman spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday about why he was going to vote against impeachment articles, he criticized the way the House of Representatives handled the impeachment process.
“The House process was also lacking in fundamental fairness and due process in a number of respects. It is incomprehensible to me that the president’s counsel did not have the opportunity to cross examine fact witnesses, and that the House selectively leaked deposition testimony from closed-door sessions,” Portman said.
“Rushing an impeachment case through the House without due process and giving the Senate a half-baked case to finish sets a very dangerous precedent,” he added. “If the Senate were to convict, it would send a wrong message and risk making this kind of quick, partisan impeachment in the House a regular occurrence moving forward.”
Furthermore, Portman concluded if the Senate did vote to convict Trump of impeachment it would further divide Americans.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
