Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell condemns Donald Trump despite voting to acquit him

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said there is "no question" that Trump was responsible for the insurrection at the US Capitol. Photos / AP and Getty Images

Minutes after voting to acquit Donald Trump of the impeachment charge of inciting last month's insurrection at the Capitol, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said there is still "no question" that Trump was "practically and morally responsible for provoking" the deadly assault.

McConnell said he could not vote to convict Trump because he is "constitutionally not eligible for conviction" since he is no longer president. He added that a conviction would have created a dangerous precedent that would give the Senate power to convict private political rivals and bar them from holding future office. McConnell added that impeachment is a "narrow tool for a narrow purpose".

McConnell, after voting to acquit, says "there is no question" that Trump is "practically and morally responsible for provoking" Capitol riot. He explains his vote by saying he decided the former president "is constitutionally not eligible for conviction" https://t.co/3HfaYxaxQC pic.twitter.com/KUrelBwiFQ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 13, 2021

Seven Republicans voted to convict the former president, easily the largest number of lawmakers to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty at impeachment proceedings.

Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sensators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.

While lawmakers voted 57-43 to find Trump guilty, the evenly divided Senate fell well short of the two-thirds majority required to convict an impeached president. But by joining all 50 Democrats who voted against Trump, the seven GOP senators created a clear majority against him and provided a bipartisan chorus of condemnation of the 45th president.

The quick trial, the nation's first of a former president, showed how perilously close the invaders had come to destroying the nation's deep tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power after Trump had refused to concede the election. Rallying outside the White House, he unleashed a mob of supporters to "fight like hell" for him at the Capitol just as Congress was certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory. As hundreds stormed the building, some in tactical gear engaging in bloody combat with police, lawmakers fled for their lives. Five people died.

The Senate's verdict after the uprising leaves unresolved the nation's wrenching divisions over Trump's brand of politics that led to the most violent domestic attack on one of America's three branches of government.

"Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future," said Madeleine Dean, one of the prosecutors in closing arguments. "What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here in this moment will be remembered. History has found us."

Trump, unrepentant, welcomed the his second impeachment acquittal and said his movement "has only just begun". He slammed the trial as "yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country".