Marco Rubio, Rick Scott vote to acquit Donald Trump of impeachment charges

Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted to acquit President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment on Wednesday, joining all but one of their Republican colleagues to keep Trump in office.

Rubio and Scott’s votes to acquit on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress were expected. Scott was a vocal defender of Trump’s conduct, arguing that it was within bounds for Trump to withhold military aid to Ukraine and pressure Ukraine’s president to investigate Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, for his work with a Ukrainian natural gas company.

The final vote on the abuse of power charge was 52 Republicans voting not guilty and 45 Democrats, two independents and one Republican — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney — voting guilty. The final vote on the obstruction of Congress charge was 53 Republicans voting not guilty and 45 Democrats and two independents voting guilty.

Two-thirds of senators present in the chamber must vote in favor of impeachment to remove the president from office, meaning Trump came nowhere close to the 67 guilty votes needed for removal.

Rubio, who did not share his thoughts publicly throughout most of the impeachment trial, took a different position. He made no judgment on Trump’s conduct, instead arguing that removing Trump from office was too harsh a penalty even if the accusations against him by Democrats could be proven.

“If House votes to impeach, the Senate decides not just guilt or innocence,but also whether removal is in the nation’s best interest,” Rubio tweeted before the vote. “EVEN IF (not EVEN THOUGH) Article I [abuse of power] could be proven, removal would not serve the nations best interest; Article II [obstruction of Congress] is a joke.”

The majority of Republicans took a position similar to Scott’s while some others, like Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, argued that Trump’s conduct was wrong, but it did not warrant removal from office.

One Republican, Romney, voted in favor of the abuse of power charge, the first senator in U.S. history to vote to impeach a president from their own party. He voted against the obstruction of Congress charge.

“With my vote I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty,” Romney said on the Senate floor. “What the president did was wrong, grievously wrong.”

Romney’s vote prevents the president and his allies from claiming that Trump’s impeachment was a partisan exercise. Not one House Republican voted in favor of sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, meaning Romney was the only Republican to break ranks.

Neither Scott nor Rubio made an official Senate floor speech explaining their vote and philosophy on impeachment, as 72 senators from both parties made floor speeches related to impeachment between Monday and Wednesday afternoon.

Scott had vocally defended the president for days. He attacked Joe and Hunter Biden in interviews and in a TV ad that ran in Iowa ahead of the state’s Democratic Caucuses on Monday. He also blasted Romney’s vote against the president.

“I think it’s unfortunate that he’s bought into [House Impeachment Manager] Adam Schiff’s impeachment charade,” Scott said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. “Mitt Romney is elected by the citizens of Utah and he’ll be judged by the citizens of Utah.”

And after Biden appeared to finish in fourth place in Iowa, Scott claimed a victory.

“Looks like last night was a terrible night for Joe Biden,” Scott tweeted. “I guess I should do an ad about [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders next.”

All 100 senators publicly announced their impeachment votes ahead of time, with Romney and Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Doug Jones of Alabama and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announcing their votes to convict the president in the hours before the vote.

In December, Miami-Dade’s House members voted along party lines to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Democratic Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson and Donna Shalala voted in favor of impeachment, while Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart voted against impeachment.

This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 4:32 PM.