US Senate Votes 57-43 To Acquit Trump In Impeachment Trial

Former U.S. President Donald Trump could run for office again in the next election.
What Happened: That's one of the outcomes from the U.S. Senate's 57-to-43 vote to clear Trump of charges of inciting the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Sixy-seven votes were needed.

The vote was not expected to pass as Democrats would have needed to pick up more Republican votes in the evenly divided Senate to win a conviction. Republicans, despite on- and off-the-record muttering against the former president's actions that day, still fear the political repercussions of going against what apparently is still a Trump-led party.

The Republicans who did vote to convict, according to NBC News, were: Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Why It Matters: The vote would have prevented Trump, the only president to ever have been impeached twice, from running for federal office again. It also serves as a litmus test for what direction the Republican Party will take now that Trump is out of office.

With the vote out of the way, Congress can now turn its attention fully to the President Joe Biden's COVID-19 relief bill.

Photo courtesy Tyler Merbler, via Wikimedia/Creative Commons.