Former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate Saturday on the charge of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol after an unprecedented second impeachment trial that exposed a Republican Party deeply divided over Trump’s conduct and uneasy with his continued role in public life.
The vote was 57-43, falling short of the two-thirds majority required for a conviction, with seven Republicans joining with Democrats and independents in finding Trump guilty on the single impeachment count.
It was the most Senate support to convict a president since Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial in 1868. Although the impeachment and the events that precipitated it may have soured some voters on Trump, the acquittal leaves the door open to Trump running for president again in 2024.
