Despite Donald Trump’s second impeachment acquittal in the U.S. Senate late Saturday afternoon, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Chris Murphy said after the historic vote that the trial afforded a measure of accountability against the former president for his role in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol last month.

“No one wanted to hold another impeachment trial. No one wanted to relive the painful and traumatic events of Jan. 6. But we had to do so,” Murphy said. “Without accountability, we simply do not have a democracy. The president of the United States cannot get away with inciting a violent insurrection.”

Even with the most bipartisan support for impeachment in American history, House of Representatives impeachment managers did not gain the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection” on Jan. 6. Seven Senate Republicans joined every Senate Democrat to find Trump guilty, 57-43.

Blumenthal and Murphy, who both voted to convict Trump, reiterated the argument they have made since the attack occurred: that letting the Capitol insurrection recede into the past without an opportunity for justice was not an option.

Blumenthal called the trial “a moral reckoning that laid bare Donald Trump’s lawless incitement of riot to overturn an election and retain power for himself.” Even without a conviction, the trial enabled “some measure of accountability,” but greater measures must be taken.

“Congress must act to stem the tide of white supremacy and violent extremism,” he said. “The courts are working now to prosecute the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, hunting lawmakers and ransacking our sacred halls of democracy.”

Blumenthal noted that a criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia — which targets Trump and his allies — is underway.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th, wrote on Twitter that “Donald Trump cares for nothing but himself. Our democracy means nothing to him if it interferes with his gratification.

“That millions of Americans admire him is a sickness in the land. The Republican senators and congressmen who defended him have poisoned their legacies.”

Following Trump’s acquittal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who voted “not guilty”, sharply denounced Trump and placed the responsibility for the Capitol insurrection squarely on his shoulders.

“There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” he said. “No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”

Nevertheless, McConnell argued that Trump is “constitutionally not eligible for impeachment,” saying that Trump was president when the House voted to impeach him but was a private citizen by the time the Senate trial began.

As then-Senate majority leader, it was McConnell who chose to delay the Senate impeachment trial until Trump was out of office.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and the lead House impeachment manager, rejected McConnell’s argument, saying that it conflicted with the text and original intent of the Constitution, as well as Senate precedent.

Still, for many Democrats, McConnell’s speech was evidence that House impeachment managers had proved Trump’s guilt in inciting the insurrection.

“Critically, the Republican leader in the Senate fully accepted the impeachment managers’ case for conviction. That is a damning result,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd, said following the vote.

House impeachment managers sought to convict Trump not only of inciting insurrection, but also to disqualify him from running for future office. In their closing statements, they argued that not holding Trump accountable for his actions on Jan. 6 and in the preceding weeks, as he waged war on the electoral process, would be dangerous for the nation.

Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal relive Capitol attack as jurors in impeachment trial: ‘Footage of all of us fleeing for our lives.’ »
“The cold, hard truth is that what happened on Jan. 6 can happen again,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Colorado. “I fear, like many of you do, that the violence we saw on that terrible day may be just the beginning.”

Trump’s lawyers argued that Trump did not directly exhort violence on Jan. 6 and that it is unconstitutional for the Senate to hold a trial for a former president who is now a private citizen.

“This has been perhaps the most unfair and flagrantly unconstitutional proceeding in the history of the United States Senate,” said one of Trump’s lawyers, Michael van der Veen, a graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford who earned his J.D. from the Quinnipiac School of Law.

Throughout the presentation of their case, House impeachment managers played disturbing videos of the Jan. 6 attack, including security video of lawmakers running away from the mob and rioters violently attacking law enforcement officers. For many lawmakers, viewing the evidence of the trial meant reliving the traumatic events of Jan. 6, during which they were shepherded to safety.

DeLauro, who hid behind seats in the upper gallery of the House Chamber Jan. 6, when the building was breached, said Saturday that the insurrection was seared into her memory.

“I struggled to put on my gas mask in the House Chamber to the sound of gunshots and calls for violence and huddled with my Republican and Democratic colleagues as we ran and hid from the insurrectionists,” she said. “And I will never forget, and history won’t either, that the attack was the result of months of inspiration and a direct call for violence by the former president.”