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The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump will start Friday, with Trump’s lawyers and House impeachment managers led by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) making concluding arguments. Votes for or against calling impeachment witnesses are expected today.
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Murkowski Against Voting for Witnesses
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) revealed Thursday that she will not vote in favor of calling witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump after a week’s worth of speculation about whether she would be a key swing-vote to help the Democrats, but she admitted that “Congress has failed.”
In a statement, Murkowski explained that House Democrats “chose to send articles of impeachment that are rushed and flawed” before she “carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents.”
“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,” she wrote. “I don’t believe the continuation of the process will change anything.”
Murkowski also said that some of her colleagues in the Senate tried to politicize the trial and attack presiding officer Chief Justice John Roberts.
“We have already degraded this institution for partisan political benefit, and I will not enable those who wish to pull down another,” she added. “We are sadly at a low point of division in this country.”
Murkowski Not Sure
Moderate GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has not signaled how she will vote for witnesses.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) speaks with reporters off the Senate floor in Washington on May 23, 2019. (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan)“I’m going to go back to my office and put eye drops in so I can keep reading,” Murkowski told reporters Thursday. “I’ve been forming a lot of thoughts so that’s going to be my job now at almost 11:00.”
There has been speculation that Murkowski could join Democrats in voting to call witnesses, including former national security adviser John Bolton.
GOP Senator: Trial Might Go Until Next Week
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the GOP leadership, said that the impeachment trial could slog into next week and interfere with the Iowa caucuses and State of the Union address.
“My guess is it probably is going to carry us over to the first part of next week, but obviously we have the Iowa caucuses on February the 3rd, and we have the State of the Union the next day,” Cornyn told reporters. “So I think for all sorts of reasons, it’s probably a good idea to bring this thing to a close in the near future.”
Some senators have said that they hope that a vote on witnesses could be done later on Friday.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in Washington on Sept. 28, 2018. (Mary F. Calvert/Reuters)Schumer: Witnesses Needed
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday said witnesses are needed in the trial and accused Republican senators of trying to cover it up.
“The vote today is about whether the Senate will have a fair trial of the president,” Schumer told reporters during his 11 a.m. press conference. “I believe the American people should hear what every senator thinks and why they’re voting the way they’re voting,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) holds a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 16, 2019. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)His remarks came after Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said he wouldn’t vote to call up witnesses in the trial. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) said they would vote to compel witness testimony after a New York Times report detailed an allegation from Bolton about Trump explicitly saying military aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations—which Trump has denied in no uncertain terms.
Alexander wrote that he believes Trump’s conduct was not appropriate, but he felt that it does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. “There is no need for more evidence to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine,” he wrote.
“That glimmer of hope that I had a few days ago disappeared last night with Lamar Alexander’s decision,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Democratic whip, told CNN on Thursday. “I don’t see the fourth vote that’s necessary.”
This article is from the Internet:Impeachment Trial Live Updates: Senators Tipped to Vote on Witnesses