WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Joe Manchin says Wednesday night was the first night he’s slept for a while.
“That tells you everything,” Manchin said Thursday on MetroNews “Talkline” the day after he voted to remove President Donald Trump from office. “I knew I made the right decision based on the facts I had. Based on everything I had, the evidence brought forward, there was no doubt in my mind how I had to vote.”
Manchin voted yes in favor of removal on both counts of impeachment. Senators voted 52-48 to acquit Trump on an abuse of power charge in connection with last summer’s call to the president of Ukraine and 53-47 on an obstruction of Congress charge.
Manchin said he can back up his votes. He said the evidence against Trump was “overwhelming.” Plus, he said, he was shocked when Trump’s defense team chose not to further defend the president with additional witnesses.
“The counsel must have decided they had the votes on the jury and so why present any evidence,” Manchin said. “Back where I come from, back home in West Virginia and especially in Farmington, if you’re charged you can’t wait to defend yourself and bring witnesses forward to defend your innocence. So all I had (against Trump) was overwhelming evidence and that’s guilty.”
.@Sen_JoeManchin talks with @HoppyKercheval about his impeachment vote. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/aTlqLuFPX7
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) February 6, 2020
Manchin said what Trump did in that phone call met the highest possible standard of removing a person from office when he asked the Ukrainian president to look at the dealings of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine and then withholding financial support until it was done.
“You’re holding democracy and people who want it, like our’s, holding it conditional to whether you will do something in the political arena for me, that’s as high as it (the standard for removal) gets,” Manchin said.
President Trump said Thursday he and his family had gone through a great ordeal in recent weeks. He said some “very dishonest and corrupt people” were trying to destroy him.
Manchin said he believes he can still get things done with Trump.
“I want to work with President Trump. I have worked with President Trump and I have been the most bipartisan senator and I still will be the most bipartisan senator when it makes sense and it’s best for our country and our state,” Manchin said on “Talkline.”
Manchin said he hopes those state residents who disagree with his votes on removal will at least agree that he did his homework.
“I can explain this vote. I at least hope they say that Joe had a thought process. I labored over this decision. It was a hard, hard decision to make. Does it rise to the level? It absolutely rises to the level of impeachment based on who we are as a country—if we want to remain that,” Manchin said.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito voted to acquit Trump on both counts.