Blumenthal Votes to Convict President Trump of Inciting Violent Attack on the Capitol

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the statement below after a bipartisan majority of the Senate voted to convict President Donald Trump on a single Article of Impeachment: Incitement of Insurrection. Although the final tally fell short of the required sixty-seven vote threshold, it marked only the second time that members of the president's own party voted for conviction and concluded the most bipartisan impeachment proceeding in United States history.

“Today’s result – the largest bipartisan vote to convict a president of impeachment in our nation’s history – reflected the irrefutable, unrefuted case against Donald Trump. This trial was a moral reckoning that laid bare Donald Trump’s lawless incitement of riot to overturn an election and retain power for himself, leaving five dead and hundreds more injured. He will be forever disgraced in the eyes of history.”

“Although we did not reach a conviction, it does provide some measure of accountability – but much more must be done to stop a would-be Trump tyrant from similar attempts to mobilize or exploit the rage of violent extremists to subvert our democracy.”

“The quest for accountability will continue. Congress must act to stem the tide of white supremacy and violent extremism. The courts are working now to prosecute the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, hunting lawmakers and ransacking our sacred halls of democracy. A criminal investigation looking into Trump’s astonishing attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results is ongoing.”

“Democracy is not our default state of being.  Democracy survives only so long as the institutions that support it thrive.  Democratic institutions will only persist through the hard work, active work, dedicated work of our elected officials.  For four years, Trump continuously and callously attacked the basic norms and institutions of democracy.  For four years, he normalized chaos.  It is all of our jobs now to restore the rule of law, the protections of rights, and the integrity of institutions.”

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