Just one day after Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal, Republicans who broke from their party by voting to convict the former US president are already facing backlash.
Seven Republicans voted for conviction in Mr Trump’s Senate trial on Saturday, the largest number of politicians to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty at impeachment proceedings.
While the 57-43 vote to find Mr Trump guilty fell well short of the two-thirds majority required, the seven GOP senators helped create a clear majority against him and provided a bipartisan chorus of condemnation of the former president.
Some are already feeling the repercussions.
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina were openly criticised by party officials at home following the impeachment verdict.
In Louisiana, the executive committee of the state’s Republican Party condemned Senator Cassidy’s vote and voted unanimously to censure him.
Louisiana Attorney-General Jeff Landry on Twitter said the senator had “fallen into the trap laid by Democrats to have Republicans attack Republicans”.
Senator Toomey was also admonished over his vote, with Pennsylvania GOP chairman Lawrence Tabas saying he shared the disappointment “of many of our grassroots leaders and volunteers”.
“The post-presidency impeachment proceeding was an unconstitutional theft of time and energy that did absolutely nothing to unify or help the American people,” Mr Tabas said in a statement.
In North Carolina, the chair of the state’s Republican Party Michael Whatley said Senator Burr had been sent to the US Senate to uphold the constitution, and his vote to convict was “shocking and disappointing”.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump supporter, told Fox News that Senator Burr had just made Lara Trump – Mr Trump’s daughter-in-law – “almost the certain nominee for the senate seat in North Carolina to replace him in she runs”.
Many of the Republicans who voted to convict Mr Trump issued statements or took to social media to justify their decision, with Senator Toomey saying “his betrayal of the constitution and his oath of office required conviction”.
Senator Burr in a statement said the former US president bore responsibility for the “tragic events” of 6 January, when rioters stormed the US Capitol.
“The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a co-equal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanours,” he said. “Therefore, I have voted to convict.
“I do not make this decision lightly, but I believe it is necessary.”
Senator Cassidy in an online video said “our constitution and our country is more important than any one person”.
“I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” the senator said.
A party divided
The seven senators join 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr Trump in January and have also faced backlash, with the New York Times reporting that almost all of them faced censure votes or public scoldings from local party leaders.
Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, quickly endured an effort by conservatives to remove her from her leadership post.
She survived it, but Mr Trump has vowed to throw his support behind a primary challenger to her.
Further, the Wyoming Republican Party last month overwhelmingly passed a motion censuring Ms Cheney – a move she shrugged off as “mistaken”.
“The oath that I took to the constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment and it doesn’t bend to partisanship,” Ms Cheney told “Fox News Sunday.” “It doesn’t bend to political pressure.”
When Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska – who also voted to convict Mr Trump on Saturday – was threatened with censure by his state party for criticising the former president, he suggested it was down to a cult of personality.
“Let’s be clear about why this is happening. It is because I still believe, as you used to, that politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude,” Senator Sasse said in a video addressed to the party leadership in Nebraska.
Dozens of former Republican officials, disillusioned by the party’s failure to stand up to Mr Trump, have held talks to form a new centre-right party, though multiple congressional Republicans rejected the idea.
Advisers say Mr Trump himself has talked about forming a breakaway Patriot Party, exacerbating Republican divisions.
But while Mr Trump maintains control over the party for now, several Republican senators said during his trial that the stain left by the deadly siege of the Capitol and Mr Trump’s months of false claims about widespread election fraud would cripple his chances of winning power again in 2024.
“After the American public sees the whole story laid out here … I don’t see how Donald Trump could be reelected to the presidency again,” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who also voted for a conviction, told reporters during the trial.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP.
