Days after vote, Jerry Moran breaks silence on why he opposes Trump’s impeachment
After two days of silence, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran finally explained his rationale for voting to table former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
And his reason was pretty much the same as the other 44 Republicans who voted that way.
“The Constitution is where I go to find answers. Unfortunately, the Constitution does not clearly answer whether a former president can be impeached. This decision will set precedent for future Congresses in regards to impeachment, and I am clearly on the side that a former president should not be subject to impeachment,” Moran said in a statement to The Star Thursday, more than 48 hours after the vote.
“Giving the green light that future Congresses can impeach a former president would cause extreme damage to our country and the future of the presidency.”
Moran’s reasoning hews closely to Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt and other GOP leaders who voiced opposition to the upcoming impeachment trial.
But Blunt’s statement was released minutes after the vote. Moran took two days to say roughly the same thing.
Neither senator argued that Trump had not committed impeachable offenses. Instead, they argued that he cannot be tried because he has left office.
However, Democrats and numerous legal scholars say the Constitution allows for a trial.
Trump was impeached by the U.S. House during his final week in office on charges that he incited insurrection when he encouraged supporters to converge on the Capitol on Jan. 6. The resulting riot left five people dead, including a police officer.
“I think it was a tragic day and he was part of it,” Blunt told reporters hours after the riot when asked if Trump bore responsibility.
But in the weeks since the riot, Republicans have softened their criticism of Trump and looked to change the subject after President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Both Moran and Blunt will be up for re-election in 2022 and voting to convict would be politically precarious as the former president remains popular with a significant portion of the Republican base. It would likely fuel a primary challenge from the right.
Both senators voted against the failed effort to overturn election, which Moran warned would undermine democracy after every other Republican from Kansas supported it.
Moran’s initial hesitance to explain his position is part of pattern in the months since the 2020 election, as Trump refused to concede and many figures in the party supported his efforts to overturn the election.
More than a week after Biden had been declared the winner by the Associated Press and other news outlets, Moran told Politico he was still working on crafting a comment.
“I’m working on what I want to say about this topic,” Moran said in mid-November. “I think I want to wait... until I get my thoughts cleared on a piece of paper and in my brain.”
A week after that, he acknowledged Biden’s status as president-elect.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 4:39 PM.
