U.S. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri is one of the 45 senators who voted Tuesday to declare that it is unconstitutional to proceed with an impeachment trial of a president who is no longer in office.
According to NPR, Senator Rand Paul pushed for the vote just after senators were sworn in Tuesday afternoon as jurors in the impeachment trial.
Blunt issued a statement Tuesday afternoon following the vote. He said he believes “the constitutional purpose for presidential impeachment is to remove a president from office, not to punish a person after they have left office.” He said if Congress proceeds it would “set a new, destructive precedent.”
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who is under fire for questioning the fairness of the 2020 Presidential Election just before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, also voted to declare the trial unconstitutional. Hawley was a leader of an effort to object to the 2020 Election results in the Senate.
