Burr faces censure by North Carolina GOP for voting to convict Trump

The North Carolina Republican Party will meet Monday to vote on whether to censure Sen. Richard Burr for his vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial — a move that would make him the latest GOP senator to be reprimanded by his state party for siding with Democrats in the trial.

It’s likely that the vote — which will be held by the party’s central committee, according to party spokesman Tim Wigginton — will pass given the swift Republican anger toward the senator on Saturday after he cast his guilty vote. Among Burr’s critics is state party chairman Michael Whatley, who called the senator’s decision “shocking and disappointing.”

Kyshia Lineberger, the RNC committeewoman from North Carolina, said she will vote to censure Burr.

“I am voting yes because he failed his state and his constituents by voting to convict FORMER President Trump in what was an unconstitutional trial. A trial that even he said was unconstitutional,” she said in an email. “At the end of the day, America is a Republic where we the people elect representatives. Senator Burr did not represent the will of the people and that is a shame.”

Though Burr has already announced he will not seek reelection in 2022 and therefore will not face voters again, the vote underscores his party’s dissatisfaction with his decision and makes Burr, who was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump, the latest member of that group to face a censure vote by his state party.

Sen. Bill Cassidy was censured by the Louisiana Republican Party on Saturday after he also cast a guilty vote in the trial — a rebuke the senator later brushed off, saying he was elected to “uphold an oath to support and defend the Constitution.”

The 57 guilty votes on Saturday fell short of the 67 needed to convict the former President, resulting in his acquittal on the charge of inciting the January 6 insurrection.

Burr said in a statement on Saturday that Trump “bears responsibility” for the insurrection, adding that the former President “used his office to first inflame the situation instead of immediately calling for an end to the assault.”

“The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high Crimes and Misdemeanors. Therefore, I have voted to convict,” the statement read.