Forty-five Senate Republicans backed a failed effort to halt former US president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, in a show of party unity that some say is a clear sign he will not be convicted of inciting insurrection at the Capitol.
Republican Senator Rand Paul made a motion on the Senate floor that would have required the chamber to vote on whether Mr Trump’s upcoming trial violates the US Constitution.
The Democratic-led Senate blocked the motion in a 55-45 vote.
But only five Republicans joined Democrats to reject the move, far short of the 17 Republicans who would need to vote to convict Mr Trump on an impeachment charge that he incited the 6 January assault on the US Capitol, which left five people dead.
“It’s one of the few times in Washington where a loss is actually a victory,” Mr Paul later told reporters. “Forty-five votes means the impeachment trial is dead on arrival.”
But some Republican senators who backed Mr Paul’s motion said their vote did not indicate how they might come down on Mr Trump’s guilt or innocence after a trial set to begin 9 February.
“It’s a totally different issue as far as I’m concerned,” Republican Senator Rob Portman told reporters.
The vote came after the senators had been sworn in as jurors for the impeachment trial.
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Mr Paul and other Republicans contend that the proceedings are unconstitutional because Mr Trump left office last Wednesday and the trial will be overseen by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy instead of by US Chief Justice John Roberts.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who moved to thwart Mr Paul’s motion, dismissed the Republican constitutional claim as “flat-out wrong” and said it would provide “a constitutional get-out-of-jail-free card” for presidents guilty of misconduct.
There is a debate among scholars over whether the Senate can hold a trial for Mr Trump now that he has left office.
Many experts have said “late impeachment” is constitutional, arguing that presidents who engage in misconduct late in their terms should not be immune from the very process set out in the constitution for holding them accountable.
The constitution makes clear that impeachment proceedings can result in disqualification from holding office in the future, so there is still an active issue for the Senate to resolve, those scholars have said.
Fellow Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has been critical of Mr Trump, rejected Mr Paul’s move.
Senator Lisa Murkowski was one of five Republican senators to reject the motion
“My review of it has led me to conclude that it is constitutional, in recognising that impeachment is not solely about removing a president, it is also a matter of political consequence,” she said.
She joined fellow Republicans Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Patrick Toomey in opposing Mr Paul.
Mr Trump is the only president to have been impeached by the House of Representatives twice and the first to face a trial after leaving power, with the possibility of being disqualified from future public office if convicted by two-thirds of the Senate.
He was acquitted by the then Republican-controlled Senate last February on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress arising from his request that Ukraine investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son.
The House approved a single article of impeachment on 13 January, accusing him of inciting an insurrection with an incendiary speech to supporters before they stormed the Capitol. A police officer and four others died in the melee.
Some Republicans have criticised Mr Trump’s false claims of voting fraud and his failed efforts to overturn Mr Biden’s 3 November election victory. But no Senate Republicans have said definitively that they plan to vote to convict him.