Indiana’s Republican U.S. senators almost certainly will vote to acquit President Donald Trump at the end of his impeachment trial, even if only one is willing to say so.
“I will listen carefully in the trial itself,” Sen. Mike Braun said Wednesday. “But from everything we know, there will not be any new information; it will be just a different presentation of it. And when it comes to everything I know so far, I will vote to acquit. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to listen and be objective in the trial itself.”
The Democratic-controlled House is expected to approve two articles of impeachment on Wednesday — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both related to Trump’s request for Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden.
Braun said the House “has not made the case, and it was founded on shaky basis when you were talking about impeachment even before you knew what the impeachment topic would be. I think the process was tainted.”
A day earlier, Sen. Todd Young declined to say how he might vote. He did drop a hint.
“My anticipation based on only anecdotal evidence from what I’ve heard publicly and read publicly is that there will indeed be a correlation between one’s party affiliation on one hand and the votes that are cast on the other hand,” Young told reporters during a conference call.
And so, presuming the House impeaches Trump on Wednesday, Democrats will vote to convict the GOP president and Republicans will vote to acquit him next year in the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 advantage. Convicting Trump and removing him from office would require a two-thirds majority vote.
Young said his vote will be “an objective decision based on presentation of all facts that are in record, and just about all the facts are already in the record.”
Braun said senators have a “political predisposition” and that “many minds are made up on our side,” based on the House impeachment hearings.
