Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski came out Friday against calling witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, all but assuring the Senate will move to wrap up proceedings with a likely acquittal in a matter of days, if not hours.
“Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate. I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed,” said Murkowski, a key moderate senator who has been closely watched on the witness question.
The announcement came after Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who also had been on the fence on the issue, announced late Thursday that he would not support additional witnesses in Trump’s “shallow, hurried and wholly partisan” trial.
Right now, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah are the only GOP senators to signal support for witnesses. Presuming Democrats vote as a bloc and no other Republicans defect, this would leave the pro-witness side with just 49 votes.
The Senate is expected to vote on the witness question later Friday. From there, proceedings could drag on through Friday night and into the weekend – and possibly beyond – but it takes a two-thirds supermajority to convict a president.
Few senators have publicly budged from party lines during the course of the trial, leaving impeachment managers far short of the votes needed to convict barring some extraordinary turn.
(AP)
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3 Responses
B”H, noe the Leader can focus on important issues like peace in the Middle East, abortion, and school prayer.
The Democrats forgot to charge him with something that was actually illegal. Asking a foreign government to investigate corruption is perfectly legal. And using executive privilege might be unconstitutional, but its has been the “minhag” for over a century.
So the Senate are a bunch of no good crooks because they didn’t vote for the impeachment sham. They’re going to acquit a guilty president! Shame on them!
He is guilty of doing his job superbly well and of being an amazing president! How dare the Senate not convict him!