PARKERSBURG — The Republican senator from West Virginia Tuesday said she will vote to acquit President Donald Trump.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito also said she will not support the resolution from fellow West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, to censure the president, calling it “a weak statement.”
“I would oppose it,” she said.
Capito spoke to reporters by telephone Tuesday and earlier gave a speech on the floor of the Senate where she said she will vote against both articles of impeachment from the House of Representatives.
Nothing presented by the House managers “justify a Senate voting to reverse the will of the people and the voters and remove from office the person they chose to lead this nation,” Capito said.
A vote on the articles of impeachment is expected today, only the third time in the history of the country that the Senate has taken such a vote. It takes a two-thirds majority to impeach a president and remove him from office.
No president — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton — has been removed from office.
The impeachment trial against Trump started in January.
The articles from the House accuse Trump of obstructing Congress by instructing agencies and officials to not comply with subpoenas or testify and charge abuse of power over withholding funds for military aid from Ukraine for an announcement that Ukraine was investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Manchin introduced the resolution Monday to censure the president for his actions, which have “brought dishonor to himself, the nation and the office of the president,” the resolution said.
The charges against the president do not rise to the high bar set for impeachment of a president, Capito said. Besides, there will be an election to determine whether Trump stays in office, she said.
“That’s what we’re going to have,” Capito said.