By Carl Weiser, Cincinnati Enquirer
Sen. Rob Portman voted to acquit former President Donald Trump Saturday.
The Ohio Republican joined most of his fellow party members in declaring Trump not guilty of the insurrection charges on which the House had impeached him following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, as he had promised earlier, voted to convict Trump.
Trump was acquitted; 57 senators voted to convict, while 43 voted to acquit, but it takes a two-thirds vote to find a president guilty in an impeachment trial.
The two senators also split their vote on Trump's first impeachment trial just over a year ago. Since then, Portman announced he would not seek another term in 2022.
Seven Republicans joined the 50 lawmakers who caucus with Democrats. Trump was also acquitted a year ago in his first trial over his dealings with Ukraine, when a majority opposed conviction and only one Republican joined Democrats voting to convict.
The trial was historic because Trump was the first president impeached twice and the first to be tried after leaving office. Trump was only the third president tried in the Senate - all were acquitted. But the Senate vote against Trump was the most bipartisan vote for conviction of a president in history – the others faced votes entirely from the opposition party.
The latest article of impeachment charged Trump with inciting the insurrection Jan. 6 at the Capitol, which left five dead including a police officer and a woman shot by police. Rioters rampaged through the building, interrupting the Electoral College vote count and searching for Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Comments