Louisiana GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy Changes Mind, Votes That Trump’s Impeachment Trial is Constitutional

Fifty-six members of the Senate today voted that the impeachment trial against former President Trump is constitutional, up one from the last time the vote was taken.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) was the member who switched his vote from last time the vote was held at the end of January when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) pushed for the vote to be held.

“If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation, I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former President Trump’s lawyers. The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president’s team did not,” Cassidy explained in a statement.

“This vote is not a prejudgment on the final vote to convict,” Cassidy insisted, however.

Cassidy previously downplayed the significance of the vote on Paul’s January motion, and told NBC News he didn’t think it revealed how senators would vote when it came time to clear or convict Trump.

“It was a vote in a moment of time and so, based upon what senators knew at that point and felt at that point, they then voted. But we will now have, hopefully, presentations from both sides, and we will consider the evidence as impartial jurors,” Cassidy said at the time.

Republican senators who joined with Democrats to reject Paul’s motion were Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

On Sunday, Cassidy had said he would listen carefully to the evidence.

Last Thursday, Cassidy was critical in an interview of House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and said that she “should not be taken seriously. “

Cassidy believes that “the conservative movement is needed now more than ever as we see what’s coming out of the White House and I think it’s time for us to be very serious, not to listen to that, which is unserious.”