Reed, Whitehouse Back Conviction As Senate Votes To Acquit Trump

Rhode Island Democratic Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse both voted to convict President Trump on both articles of impeachment, but the bid to remove Trump from office fell well short.

Neither development late Wednesday afternoon was a surprise, as the bitter impeachment of Trump came to an expected end in the Senate.

"After carefully weighing the evidence, I will vote to convict President Trump on both articles of impeachment," Reed wrote on Facebook.

"The facts are clear, the conduct impeachable, and the obstruction unprecedented – and yet the White House and its allies in the Senate have stymied the Constitution’s process for removing a corrupt president," Whitehouse said in a statement, calling on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

It is . . . midnight within the moral order. At midnight colors lose their distinctiveness and become a sullen shade of grey. Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. . . .

Midnight is a confusing hour when it is difficult to be faithful. The most inspiring word . . . is that no midnight long remains. The weary traveler by midnight who asks for bread is really seeking the dawn. Our eternal message of hope is that dawn will come.

"It is, indeed, moral midnight for this body, but dawn will come," Whitehouse concluded.

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump on any article of impeachment. He voted to convict Trump on abuse of power, but not obstruction of Congress.

Trump was acquitted on the abuse of power charge by a 52-48 vote and the obstruction of Congress charge by a 53-47 vote. Sixty-seven votes were needed on to convict on either article of impeachment.

Massachusetts Editor Mike Carraggi contributed to this report.