WASHINGTON _ Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said Wednesday he will vote to convict President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial, becoming the first and likely only Republican to break with his party and join Democrats seeking to remove the president from office.
Though Romney's decision will allow Democrats to claim bipartisan support for convicting Trump, they are still certain to fall short of the needed 67 votes for conviction.
"The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust," said Romney, who at one point appeared to choke up while delivering his statement. "Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine."
Romney will vote to convict Trump on the first article of impeachment regarding abuse of power, but to acquit the president on the second article involving obstruction of Congress.
Romney, a former presidential candidate who won't be up for Senate reelection until 2024, has been a vocal critical of Trump.
He acknowledged that he could face the wrath of the president, his party and some of his constituents.
"Does anyone seriously believe that I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded of me?" he said. Later he acknowledged to Fox News, "It's going to get very lonely."
Despite Romney's vote, the Senate is poised to acquit Trump Wednesday of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress' investigation into his conduct, ending the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
The vote will be sharply divided along party lines with only a handful of lawmakers still undeclared as of Wednesday afternoon, including Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who said he was struggling with his vote and is facing an uphill reelection bid this year, said Wednesday he will vote to convict.
The 12-day trial is the shortest in presidential impeachment history, and the only one that did not include subpoenas for witnesses or documents. Democrats say that exclusion delegitimized the process and as a result, Trump's name will never be cleared.
"If the president is acquitted with no witnesses, no documents, any acquittal will have no value because Americans will know that this trial was not a real trial," said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. "It's a tragedy on a very large scale."
The House impeached Trump in December for withholding nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine while pressing the country's leaders to announce investigations into his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump and the White House were able to stonewall the House impeachment inquiry, refusing to allow administration officials to testify or turn over documents except for a memo of a phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine. When the issue of subpoenas came to the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was able to keep enough of his Republicans together to oppose issuing them, arguing that the House _ not the Senate _ should have fought the court battle over whether Trump could block his aides from testifying.
Romney and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine were the only Republicans who voted to demand witnesses, along with all Democrats. But the motion was still two votes short of the tally required.
Trump's Republican allies blasted the process, accusing House Democrats of pursuing a partisan impeachment out of spite for the 2016 election.
"I have such strong feelings about how unfair everything is and why it's all motivated from hate. They hate him," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
Over 12 days, the Senate conducted a trial _ overseen by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. _ to determine whether the president should be removed from office. Senators swore to uphold "impartial justice."
Sixty-seven votes are required in the Senate to remove an impeached president from office _ a bar that Democrats knew they were unlikely to even brush up against. While two previous presidents have been impeached _ President Andrew Johnson in 1868 and President Bill Clinton in 1998 _ the Senate has never removed a president from office. President Richard Nixon resigned when it became clear he would be removed.
Like Johnson and Clinton, Trump's legacy will now include impeachment _ a descriptor that even his acquittal in the Senate will not erase. He made no mention of the impeachment during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, adhering to a request made by Senate Republicans to focus instead on a new agenda in an election year.
Republican allies expect Trump to tout the Senate vote, but Democrats say history is on their side.
"I guess Andrew Johnson was a winner at the time," Sen. Christopher Murphy of Connecticut said of the 17th president, who survived a Senate impeachment trial but whose legacy was tarred. "I'm not sure that the broad scope of history judges Andrew Johnson a winner in that fight."
And even now, the acquittal vote is not a clean win for the president. Unlike in the House, where many Republicans echoed Trump's line that his actions with Ukraine were proper or "perfect," several Senate Republicans made clear that they found Trump's actions wrong though not impeachable or warranting removal.
"It is clear from the July 25, 2019, phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy that the investigation into the Bidens' activities requested by President Trump was improper and demonstrated very poor judgment," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Senators on both sides of the aisle complained this week that they were being asked to make a decision based on an incomplete record. Republicans blamed the House for not fighting for the testimony and documents in court.
"Instead of using tools available to compel the administration to compel documents and witnesses, the House followed a self-imposed and entirely political deadline for voting on the articles of impeachment before Christmas," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Democrats blamed the White House for refusing to comply with congressional attempts to subpoena administration officials and documents, and the Senate for not calling witnesses.
"We robbed ourselves and the American people of a full record," said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats.
