Pelosi blasts McConnell and 'cowardly group of Republicans' in Senate after Trump impeachment acquittal
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blasted Senate Republicans as cowards who refused to stand up to former President Trump and find him guilty in the impeachment trial.
"What we saw in that Senate today was a cowardly group of Republicans," Pelosi said of the majority of the Senate GOP who found Trump "not guilty" of incitement of insurrection.
Pelosi joined the House impeachment managers Saturday at a news conference after the Senate acquitted Trump again in his second impeachment trial. The vote 57-43 in favor of conviction, but still 10 short of the supermajority needed.
"Justice wasn't done," Pelosi said of the vote.
Pelosi took special aim at GOP Leader Mitch McConnell for delaying the start of the impeachment trial and then saying Saturday he couldn't vote to convict Trump because the trial started after Trump left office.
"You chose not to receive it," Pelosi said of the article of impeachment the House wanted to deliver earlier.
"That was the excuse that he used," she added.
Pelosi came out strong against now voting to censure Trump, a lesser punishment that some bipartisan senators had floated as an alternative to impeachment.
"Censure is the slap in the face of the constitution," Pelosi said. "It lets everybody off the hook.
"All these cowardly senators who couldn't face up to what the president did and what was at stake for our country are now going to have a chance to give a little slap on the wrist?
"We censure people for using stationary for the wrong purpose," Pelosi continued. "We don't censure people for inciting insurrection that kills people in the Capitol."