WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a meeting with leaders of the steel industry at the White House March 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump announced planned tariffs on imported steel and aluminum during the meeting, with details to be released at a later date: Win McNamee/Getty Images

By Glynn Wilson –

The Republicans in the United States Senate showed just how partisan Washington has become on Wednesday by voting along strict party lines to acquit President Donald J. Trump of two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, even though a number of Republicans had admitted publicly that Trump was indeed guilty of what he was charged with by the House.

The House did its job by investigating this president and attempting to remove him from the White House for pressuring a foreign government to investigate a political rival.

The vote on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, failed in a vote of 48 to 52, with only one Republican, Mitt Romney of Utah, voting with the Democrats. The second article, obstruction of Congress, failed along party lines 47 to 53.

Only Senator Romney came out of the process with his integrity intact, the lone Republican to vote to remove Trump from power.

Romney admitted he would face political repercussions for his vote, but stood by his convictions and faith.

“I recognize there is going to be enormous consequences for having reached this conclusion,” Romney said on the Senate floor, indicating that in his view Democrats had proven their first charge, that the president had misused his office in a bid to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden for political reasons.

Speaking haltingly from the Senate floor before the vote, Romney choked up and said that his decision was made out of an “inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it.” He concluded that Trump was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”

Another Senator in the spotlight, Doug Jones, the Democrat from Alabama, who national reporters and commentators had called a potential defector in Democratic ranks who might vote to acquit Trump, put that punditry to rest on Wednesday, announcing in the morning that he would vote to convict Trump on both counts.

We broke that story first: U.S. Senator Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama, Announces He Will Vote For Trump’s Impeachment and Removal From Office

Senator Jones, who commentators like to call a moderate and point out that he is facing re-election in a conservative, red state that Trump won in 2016 by nearly 28 points, explained his decision and was called “a statesman” all over Facebook for standing up to the pressure of millions of dollars in television campaign ads demanding that he vote to acquit this president.

“After many sleepless nights, I have reluctantly concluded that the evidence is sufficient to convict the president for both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,” Jones said in a statement sent out to the press just before 10 a.m.

Later on Twitter, Jones said: “In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch said, ‘The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.’ All along, my conscience has been my guide. But voting my conscience does not require courage — it simply requires doing what I know is right.”

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch said, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

All along, my conscience has been my guide. But voting my conscience does not require courage — it simply requires doing what I know is right. pic.twitter.com/4ijgsy3Qgi

— Archived: Senator Doug Jones (@SenDougJones) February 5, 2020

The other Senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby of Tuscaloosa, could have emerged as a leader and showed that he was capable of rising above party loyalty. With his standing, as one of the longest serving senators who used to be a Democrat and chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, he could have helped rally enough Republican votes to get rid of this corrupt, divisive dictator-king once and for all. But he too voted to find Trump not guilty on both counts, dooming the country to many more months and maybe four more years of this crazy reality show from the White House and on Twitter.

Another Republican Senator with some clout who is retiring next year anyway, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, could have gone out with honor. He voted to let Trump off the hook too.

“I think he shouldn’t have done it. I think it was wrong,” Alexander had said of Trump’s behavior before the vote. “Inappropriate was the way I’d say — improper, crossing the line,” he said. But, “I think what he did is a long way from treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Of course Trump will no doubt go all out on Twitter and the campaign trail to tout his acquittal as a victory, but at least he won’t be able to trumpet it as a bipartisan acquittal.