#Impeachment #Vote #RandPaul #MarcoRubio #MittRomney #Trump #Biden #Pelosi

Republicans have blasted Democrats for pushing ahead with Donald Trump's second impeachment, after 45 GOP senators effectively signaled ex-president will be acquitted after voting the trial 'unconstitutional'.

Senator Rand Paul labeled Democrats as hypocrites for pursuing a charge of inciting violence, claiming several Dems urged supporters to confront Republicans during the Trump administration, yet were not rebuked.

'It's a farce, and it's not constitutional, and it shows the double standards because Democrats have had much more hateful speech, much more specifically inciting violence, and no one said a peep about it,

Paul spoke after a trio of his colleagues in the senate labelled Donald Trump's second impeachment 'a clown show,' a 'stupid joke', 'vindictive' and unconstitutional.

Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina all appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, arguing that it was wrong to press ahead with impeaching the president.

Paul told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that the impeachment was 'a partisan game' designed 'to punish Republicans'.

He added: 'They want to say he incited violence because he said go fight for your country, and he said march peacefully and patriotically.'

Paul said: 'One of Bernie Sanders' supporters came to the ballfield, nearly killed Steve Scalise ... but nobody talked about impeaching Bernie Sanders.

'Maxine Waters has said, 'Get up in their face' - so has Cory Booker - 'Become a mob, we want you to mob them at restaurants and cause mayhem.'

'That sounds like an incitement to violence but nobody's talking about impeaching Maxine Waters, nobody's talking about impeaching Bernie Sanders or Cory Booker for saying 'Get up in their face.'

'So it's a significant hypocrisy and double standard that they're putting forward and they should be called out on it. Nobody should be shy about calling them out on their hypocrisy.'

Earlier on Tuesday a majority of Republicans had voted in favor of a motion that Trump 's second impeachment is unconstitutional: a sign the former president will likely be acquitted in his upcoming trial.

Paul, senator for Kentucky, forced the vote on the issue, arguing the trial was illegal given that Trump no longer occupies the Oval Office.

He said his vote meant impeachment was 'dead on arrival'.

Most Republicans, including their leader in the senate, Mitch McConnell, agreed with him.

Forty five of them voted it was unconstitutional. Five GOP senators joined Democrats, to give them 55 votes to proceed.

It would take two-thirds of the Senate to convict Trump, which would mean 17 Republican senators would have to cross ranks and vote for the conviction.

Paul needed more than 34 votes from Republicans to demonstrate that a Trump conviction would seem all but impossible. He got 44 to join him.

Rubio told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that pressing ahead with impeaching Trump for inciting the January 6 Capitol riot was a 'stupid' waste of time, which he argued was damaging to America.