Axios: “Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are forging ahead with a draft proposal to censure former President Trump, and are considering introducing the resolution on the Senate floor next week. Senators are looking for a way to condemn Trump on the record as it becomes increasingly unlikely Democrats will obtain the 17 Republican votes needed to gain a conviction, Axios Alayna Treene writes. ‘I think it’s important for the Senate’s leadership to understand that there are alternatives,’ Kaine told CNN on Wednesday.”

“If we can’t get to 67 votes for impeachment, there may be another way to hold President Trump accountable. The censure resolution will declare that the attack on the Jan. 6 Capitol was an insurrection against the Constitution – an effort to stop Congress from ‘undertaking its constitutional duty to count electoral votes,’ according to Kaine. It finds that Trump ‘gave aid and comfort’ to the insurrectionists by ‘repeatedly lying about the election, slandering election officials, pressuring others to come to Washington for a wild event and encouraging them to come up to Congress.’ The language is pulled from Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. If Trump is found to have violated the amendment, he would be barred from ever holding office again. ‘This is an alternative that would impose, in my view, a similar consequence but it does not require a trial and it does not require a two-thirds vote,’ Kaine added.”