Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) claimed a number of Republican senators are now privately in support of President Donald Trump being convicted in a Senate impeachment trial.
“I would say they’re four to six votes for removal right now,” Weld, who is running against Trump’s 2020 reelection, told The Hill in an interview published Thursday.
Republicans currently control the Senate with a 53-47 majority. Sixty-seven votes are needed to convict a president, meaning with Weld’s claim the figure would still fall at least 14 votes short of the threshold.
It would, however, mean a majority of senators will be in favor of convicting Trump ― if all Democrats also agree.
No Republican senators have publicly announced their support for conviction and Weld, one of three Republican candidates fighting Trump for the GOP 2020 nomination, refused to name names.
But he said: “I know most of the senior Republicans in the Senate. They’re picking their words carefully when they talk to me, of all people, even though we are friends.”
Weld in September said Trump had committed treason in the Ukraine scandal.
“It’s treason, pure and simple, and the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death,” Weld said. “The penalty on the Constitution is removal from office, and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he could work out a plea deal.”