Former Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said that he plans to vote for Donald Trump in November despite previously registering his disapproval of the former president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a July interview with Spectrum Local News published on Tuesday, the former senator insisted it was not contradictory that he planned to vote for Trump after voting in the Senate to convict him of inciting an insurrection — which would have barred Trump from running again.
Burr said his impeachment vote was a response to Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, rather than an attempt to disqualify him from the presidency.
“Maybe someone will have a hard time squaring with [my decision to vote for him]. I don’t have a hard time squaring with it because I firmly understood why I voted for impeachment,” Burr told the outlet. “And like I said, that’s not a disqualifier as to whether you can serve. It’s a bad choice I thought a president made one time.”
During Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, Burr was among seven Senate Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to convict Trump for the events of Jan. 6.
“I think some were shocked,” Burr said, reflecting on his colleagues’ reactions to his vote, noting that he didn’t tell them before he voted. “I think some might have voted a different way if I had told them. Very possibly. Very possibly.”
Burr’s decision resulted in a unanimous vote from the North Carolina Republican Party to censure him in 2021.
“The NCGOP agrees with the strong majority of Republicans in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate that the Democrat-led attempt to impeach a former president lies outside the United States Constitution,” the central committee said in a statement.
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