ST. LOUIS — On Wednesday, the Senate acquitted President Donald Trump of both articles of impeachment.
The final vote count on the first charge came to 48 guilty, 52 not guilty on the first article of impeachment. On the vote for the second article of impeachment, the count came to 47 guilty, 53 not guilty.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, which made any effort to remove Trump unlikely. The support of at least two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 senators, was needed to convict and remove Trump from office.
The vote brought an end to only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
Lawmakers in Missouri and Illinois weighed in on the acquittal Wednesday.
Governors
Missouri Governor Mike Parson(R)
"Today the United States Senate has upheld its responsibility to the American people and acquitted President Trump. I applaud both Senators Blunt and Hawley for their vote on behalf of the people of Missouri. Since the beginning, this impeachment was a fraud and a complete waste of time.
Now we can finally move on from this terrible partisan distraction and get back to doing the work of the American people. In Missouri, our citizens want us to work on job creation, workforce development, fixing a broken immigration system, rooting out fraud in government, building infrastructure and protecting our farmers. These are the real issues that affect people’s everyday lives in the State of Missouri. Republicans and Democrats in Congress should come together to put this era of bickering behind us and do the job they were elected to do — serve the American people."
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker(D)
“Today we saw Republicans in the United States Senate thwart the intentions of the framers of our Constitution and capitulate to this corrupt and untruthful President. The Republican Party now has confirmed it is captive to a political ideology denies the truth and refuses to hear the witnesses that legal and moral precedent demand – and that the vast majority of Americans hoped to hear from.
“Here is the undeniable truth: President Trump used our tax dollars to help his reelection campaign by refusing to give an ally needed aid until they helped his political operation.
“As governor of the nation's fifth-largest economy, I'm going to continue to make Illinois a firewall against Donald Trump's assaults on our democracy and hold him accountable on behalf of all the working families he has harmed.
“Illinois will always stand on the side of all the brave individuals across this nation who are fighting to hold the United States of America to its own ideals of liberty and justice for all.”
Congress
Rep. Lacy Clay(D, Mo.-01)
“This was not an exoneration, it was a spineless perpetuation of a dangerous coverup. Republicans in the U.S. Senate turned a blind eye to the facts, refused to allow witnesses and documents that would have uncovered the whole truth, and surrendered congressional oversight to an amoral president who tramples on the Constitution, puts national security at risk for his own benefit, and repeatedly places himself above the Rule of Law.
"As Senator Lamar Alexander (R) Tennessee noted, 'The president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence.' Senator Alexander is absolutely right. The core of the case against the President is glaringly simple and the evidence is overwhelming.
"Donald J. Trump is guilty of Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.
"These are the inescapable facts proven by the House Managers:
"President Trump abused his power by withholding $391 million in congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine, to coerce our ally who is under Russian attack, into digging up negative information to be used against Mr. Trump’s potential 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. The non-partisan General Accounting office has determined that this was a violation of federal law.
"And in doing so, Donald Trump solicited something of value from a foreign entity to help his reelection campaign. That is a felony violation of Federal Election Law.
"He then executed a complete obstruction of congressional oversight by refusing to respond to lawful subpoenas issued by the U.S. House.
"Future congresses will wonder why, given the opportunity to call witnesses and review documents, Senate Republicans chose to put their heads in the sand instead of preserving and protecting the separation of powers, effectively making this president unaccountable to the power of Congress.
"Donald Trump’s lawless actions put our national security at risk for his own political benefit. His total obstruction of Congress, without consequences, will permanently alter the balance of power the Founders fought so hard to create to safeguard our republic.
"As Chief House Manager Adam Schiff said so well, 'The facts will come out. The witnesses that the president refuses to produce and the documents that he continues to conceal will be revealed. And if you rob this country of a fair trial, there can be no meaning to the outcome.'
"Senate Republicans fear Donald Trump more than the judgement of history and the will of the American people.
"They will come to regret that choice, in November, and in perpetuity.”
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer(R, Mo.-03)
“Last night in his State of the Union address, President Trump outlined the historic success our country has seen over the past three years. Thanks to the President’s foreign policy and decisive military action as Commander in Chief, this country and the world are safer. Unemployment is at a historic low while median household income is at the highest level ever recorded. In Missouri, 56,000 new jobs have been created since 2017 and families are taking home and keeping more of their money. As the President said, the state of our union is stronger than ever before.
“One can only imagine how well America would be doing had Democrats not been solely focused on fighting the President at every turn for the last three years. With impeachment being their ultimate goal since the day the President was sworn into office, the country has had to endure over two years and millions of dollars wasted on the failed Mueller investigation only to be saddled with another desperate attempt to oust President Trump that finally ended today. Instead of incessantly trying to overturn the 2016 election, hopefully my colleagues can finally focus on the real reason they were elected and start working for the American people.”
Rep. Jason Smith(R, Mo.-08)
Rep. Mike Bost(R, Ill.-12)
“Our Founders understood the gravity of impeachment, reserving it for egregious criminal conduct. It wasn’t intended to be a weapon for undoing elections. The Senate put the final nail in the coffin for impeachment today, reaching the same conclusion so many Americans knew all along: the Democrats’ motives were partisan and the evidence was paltry. Now that the president has been rightfully acquitted, I hope that Washington will get back to doing the people’s business.”
Rep. Rodney Davis(R, Ill.-13)
"The Senate has acquitted President Trump and it's time to move on. We need to learn from this and stop these partisan fights that get in the way of solving issues critical to this country. There's a long list of issues that need our attention. It's time to work together to lower health care costs, fix our crumbling infrastructure, address the opioid crisis, invest in workforce training, find innovative solutions to student debt, and other issues that directly impact the lives of the people we serve."
Congressman John Shimkus (R IL-15) and Congresswoman Ann Wager (R MO-02) did not have statements available on social media or their websites.
Senate
Sen. Roy Blunt(R-Mo.)
Sen. Roy Blunt has not released a statement on the acquittal but made a statement on the Senate floor before Wednesday's vote.
Sen. Josh Hawley(R-Mo.)
Sen. Hawley has not released a statement on the acquittal but made a statement on the Senate floor before Wednesday's vote.
Sen. Dick Durbin(D-Ill.)
Sen. Tammy Duckworth(D-Ill.)
“Ever since I enlisted in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, I’ve sworn oaths to defend the Constitution—first as a Soldier and now as a Senator. These oaths mean something to me, as does the one I took to be an impartial juror in the third-ever impeachment trial of a President of the United States. The gravity and solemnity of this moment in our nation’s history is not lost on me and the decision of whether or not to convict and remove this president from office is not one I take lightly.
“Over the course of this trial, I’ve taken my Constitutional responsibility seriously and entered the Senate chamber each day with an open mind. I watched as the House managers built a strong case with, as even one Republican senator said, a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence’ that the President withheld security assistance to pressure a foreign government to investigate his political rival. I requested documentary evidence and testimony that could demonstrate the unlawful withholding of security assistance was done for legitimate, rather than corrupt, purposes. But rather than providing any materials that could have provided exoneration, defense counsel relied on long-debunked conspiracy theories, misleading distractions and the dictatorial and indefensible legal theory that a President can do literally anything if they believe it helps their re-election campaign.
“Despite the clear and conclusive case that the President is guilty, I believe the American people—and the Senators serving as jurors in the case—deserved a more full and fair trial that included witnesses and evidence, and I’m disappointed we didn’t get that. The sad truth is, the information from these witnesses will eventually come out and then the country will come to understand just how meaningless and inappropriate today’s acquittal is. Though some of my colleagues have said we should acquit him because ‘the voters should decide,’ that argument rings hollow because this trial was about Trump trying to cheat in the next election by enlisting the help of a foreign government to misinform citizens and rob the voters of their ability to decide. If the Framers had wanted the President to be immune from accountability through impeachment and removal in an election year, they would have written that into the Constitution. They did not.
“After hearing both sides’ presentations, I reflected on the values this nation was founded on—values I fought in uniform to defend: justice, freedom and the rule of law. In this country, no one is above the law. In this country, the truth matters. And as Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman said, in America, right matters. With that in mind, it was impossible to come away from this trial with any opinion other than that the President is guilty of the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Both charges reflect his egregious conduct, which clearly meet the threshold of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ as outlined in Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution, and therefore merit removal from office. While I wish our nation had not been placed in this unfortunate position, at the end of the day, I could not have voted any other way.”