Florida’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, unsurprisingly voted with their party to acquit President Donald Trump’s in his Senate impeachment trial — an acquittal that notably turned out to not be totally split along party lines.
The Senate voted 52-48 to acquit Trump of a count of abuse of power in connection with his actions in withholding military aid to Ukraine while pressuring the country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
The only Republican to vote against acquittal was U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee.
Romney became the first senator to vote to remove a member of his own party in an impeachment trial. While he voted to convict on the count of abuse of power, he joined his GOP colleagues in voting to acquit Trump on the second count of obstruction of Congress.
“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the President committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did,” Romney said in a floor speech. “With my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me.”
All Democrats voted to convict and remove Trump.
Scott, who had run an ad in Iowa last week saying he was being “held hostage” by the trial, issued a terse statement following the vote: “Finally. I’m glad that charade is over. Let’s get back to work.”
But he did criticize Romney in a Tweet a few hours earlier, writing, “Senator Romney is wrong. His decision to buy into [Democratic House impeachment manager] Adam Schiff’s partisan charade is disappointing. And he will ultimately be judged by the voters of Utah.”
He later tweeted from his campaign account, “Now we need to work hard over the next 9 months to re-elect President Trump and elect Republicans across the country!”
Rubio’s office cited his statement on impeachment from last week, in which he quoted Alexander Hamilton that impeachment trials will “agitate the passions of the whole community” but that the Senate must pursue “the public good.”
“Determining which outcome is in the best interests requires a political judgment ? one that takes into account both the severity of the wrongdoing alleged but also the impact removal would have on the nation,” Rubio said.
“Can anyone doubt that at least half of the country would view his removal as illegitimate — as nothing short of a coup d’état?” Rubio wrote. “It is difficult to conceive of any scheme Putin could undertake that would undermine confidence in our democracy more than removal would. … I will not vote to remove the President because doing so would inflict extraordinary and potentially irreparable damage to our already divided nation.”
Rubio’s statement did not specifically specify if he thought Trump was guilty or not guilty of the counts against him, but he wrote, “Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office.”
Steven Lemongello writes for the Orlando Sentinel.
