The President of the United States, Donald Trump, was on Wednesday acquitted of all charges in his impeachment trial.
In the first charge “abusing power of office” the Senate, mainly controlled by the Republican party, voted 52-48 while in the second charge “obstruction of congress” the Senate voted 53-47. To vote the president out, two-thirds of the majority vote is needed.
Mr Trump was charged by the Democrats in December with pressuring the Ukrainian government to further investigate former vice president Joe Biden, a move that is said would enhance his chances of winning the 2020 elections.
If he had been convicted, he would have had to turn over his office to Vice President Mike Pence.
Throughout the impeachment trial, Mr Trump has denied doing anything wrong.
In his reelection campaign, he said in a statement, “President Trump has been totally vindicated and it’s now time to go back to the business of the American people.
“The do-nothing Democrats know they can’t beat him, so they had to impeach him,” he added.
The statement further read that “this impeachment hoax will go down as the worst miscalculation in American political history,”
Mr Trump also tweeted, “I will be making a public statement tomorrow at 12:00pm from the @WhiteHouse to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!”
Trump’s impeachment vote
Only one Republican, Mitt Romney, indicted the president on the charge of abuse of power.
Some Republican senators, although criticising Mr Trumps behaviour, concluded that impeaching him was too harsh a judgement.
What did Donald Trump do wrong?
In December 2019, the U.S. president was accused of “attempting to withhold military aid to Ukraine and pressure its government to investigate former vice president Joe Biden.”
He was also accused of obstructing Congress for “refusing to participate in the impeachment inquiry.”
Democrats reaction
The Democrats according to BBC “expressed concern that acquittal would further embolden a president” whom they depicted as a demagogue.
Meanwhile, a displeased Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, said that the president is “an ongoing threat to American democracy” and his acquittal showed that both the Senate and Republicans “normalised lawlessness.”
