US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi
US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi has frowned at the acquittal of President Donald Trump by the Senate.
Democrats had alleged he withheld military aid to Ukraine and asked the country to move against Joe Biden, his political rival.
They impeached President Trump in the House after he was impeached in the House of Representatives.
But on Wednesday, Senators voted that he was not guilty of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Mitt Romney was the only Republican to vote against Trump in the 52-48 vote.
The Senate needed a two-third vote to remove Trump from office.
In her reaction, Pelosi called him a “rogue president” and said he was a “threat” to America.
She said: “Our Founders put safeguards in the Constitution to
protect against a rogue president. They never imagined that they would
at the same time have a rogue leader in the Senate who would cowardly
abandon his duty to uphold the Constitution.
“President Trump was impeached with the support of a majority
of the American people – a first in our nation’s history. And now he is
the first President in history to face a bipartisan vote to convict him
in the Senate.
“The President will boast that he has been acquitted. There can
be no acquittal without a trial, and no trial without witnesses,
documents and evidence.
“Because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the
Constitution, the President remains an ongoing threat to American
democracy, with his insistence that he is above the law and that he can
corrupt the elections if he wants to.
“The House will continue to protect our Constitution &
#DefendOurDemocracy, both in the courts of law and in the court of
public opinion.”