Donald Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Causing Republican Senators To Sweat, Says Ohio’s Sherrod Brown

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown said that his Republican Senate colleagues are “sweating” over Donald Trump‘s increasingly likely impeachment trial, Yahoo! News reports. Several may find themselves having to either vote their conscience or vote with the wishes of their constituents, he says.

Speaking to the Skullduggery podcast, Brown gave a glimpse into the attitude of Republican Senators as the likelihood that Donald Trump will be impeached, and thus have to face a trial in the Senate, becomes more real by the day. He points out that many of his fellow Senators on the other side of the aisle believe things about Donald Trump that they’re not willing to say publicly.

“I hear Republican members of the Senate say things like, ‘We know he’s pretty crooked, he lies a lot, he’s a pretty bad guy.’ Some of them will say, ‘We know he’s a racist.’ But they are not saying it publicly,” Brown says.

And as far as having to cast a vote on whether or not Trump should be removed from office, Brown says his colleagues find themselves stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place: regardless of what they believe in their hearts about removing Trump from office, how they vote, be it for or against Trump, could affect their chances of re-election.

Making things even more complicated, many Senators are from districts that are considered a toss-up the next time their seat is up for election. Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, Iowa’s Joni Ernst, and Maine’s Susan Collins are all up for re-election in tough races. Brown suggests that they, and others whose seats are endangered, may vote to remove Trump from office, particularly as public opinion against Trump seems to be turning against him.

“We’ll see how this plays out,” Brown said.

If or when Donald Trump becomes the third president to be impeached, and he goes on trial in the Senate, it would take a two-thirds majority — 67 votes — to remove him from office. That would require the vote of every Democrat in the Senate — far from a sure thing — as well as the votes of 20 Republicans.

As for the number of Republicans who’ll likely vote to remove Trump from office, Brown says that a month ago he’d have put that number at zero. Now, he says it’s one: Utah’s Mitt Romney.

As for his own vote, Brown says that it’s too early to make a call either way. Calling himself a “juror,” he says that he won’t discuss how he’ll vote until he’s heard all of the evidence once the Articles of Impeachment are voted on and Trump goes to trial.