Republican senators are blasting Democrats for moving ahead with an impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump, calling the effort “dead on arrival” after 45 GOP senators voted that it was unconstitutional Tuesday.

Sen. Ted Cruz chalked it up to the Democrats being “driven by partisan rage” against Trump.

“They hate Donald J. Trump and they are engaging in an act that I think is petty retribution and that is vindictive and a waste of time,” the Texas Republican told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday night, adding, “and so I think it’s time to move on.”

Cruz added that the trial doesn’t meet the constitutional standard.

“They didn’t pretend to follow due process, they didn’t have hearings, they didn’t pretend to look at any facts or any evidence,” he said. “This was an exercise in political rage. It was their id speaking … look, these are the same Democrats who four years ago, in 2017 — actually in December of 2016, before Trump was sworn in, said they wanted to impeach him. They’ve wanted to impeach him from the beginning. They did it a year ago.”

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky spoke Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor against the trial, noting that it would be unconstitutional to impeach a former president.

In a Twitter post, he said, “45 Senators agreed that this sham of a ‘trial’ is unconstitutional. That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process. This ‘trial’ is dead on arrival in the Senate.”

Paul, in an interview later Tuesday on Fox News, pointed out that Democrats, including Rep. Maxine Waters, urged her supporters to harass Trump administration members over the former president’s immigration policies.

Paul was referring to June 2018 remarks by Waters, who told a crowd, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

“That sounds like an incitement to violence, but nobody’s talking about impeaching Maxine Waters,” Paul said.

“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,” he continued.

Five Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah — voted against their party to say the trial is constitutional and should continue.

The five voted along with all 50 Democratic senators.

A two-thirds majority is needed in the chamber to find Trump guilty of the impeachment charge of “incitement of an insurrection” because of his speech before the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, carried out by supporters of the former president.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) questioned why Democrats continue to pursue an impeachment trial when they know the votes aren’t there to convict.

“Why are they doing this? They’re afraid. I think Democratic senators are afraid of the left wing of their party, that if they don’t give some credibility to this trial that started in the House, they are in trouble,” he told Hannity.

He suggested President Biden, who has vowed to unite the country, could put an end to the trial.

“And Joe Biden has been a huge disappointment thus far, not only on policy but on the idea that ‘I’m going to bring the country together.’ How easy would it be, Sean, for Joe Biden to say, ‘It is bad to impeach a president after they leave office, enough already with Donald Trump, let’s look forward’?” he said.

“So tells you a lot about Joe Biden’s ability and desire to bring us together by the fact that he’s sitting on the sidelines and his only comment has been, ‘I don’t think they have the votes,'” Graham said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who also appeared on Fox News Tuesday, said there’s “no doubt” that Trump bears some responsibility for the Capitol riot, but said the trial is senseless because Trump is a private citizen now.

“Do you think he should be punished for those remarks?” host Neal Cavuto asked.

“He’s a private citizen,” Rubio responded. “If the president did something that rises to that level that these folks so strongly believe, then the criminal justice system and the civil system is in place to pursue.”

Following through on impeachment, Rubio said, just “stokes a fire” that is already burning in a divided country.

“Politics is emotional. Now on that fire, we’re going to pour this gasoline and get it hotter.

“It’s not just a waste of time but it’s going to hurt America,” Rubio said.