Oklahoma senators see no need for witnesses
As the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump got underway, Oklahoma's senators voted Tuesday against requiring the White House to turn over documents and said they saw no reason to hear from witnesses.
“I don't feel an obligation to go search for additional information and additional witnesses and additional pieces beyond what (House Democrats) already sent us,” said Sen. James Lankford, a Republican.
Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe said Democrats want to call witnesses at the trial to “in order to try to string this out to adversely affect the reelection of our president.”
In ho fe said ,” My vote would be not to have additional witnesses because they had 17 witnesses … I think they' ve had enough witnesses and we need to get on with it.”
The Senate is scheduled to hear opening arguments on Wednesday after establishing rules for the trial that include admitting the evidence gathered by the House before it voted on Dec. 18 for two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Inhofe and Lankford joined other Republicans in voting down a Democratic effort to subpoena White House documents t hat were not turned over to the House during the investigation of whether Trump withheld aid to Ukraine to force an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Senate trial on whether to remove the president from office is expected to last into next week and possibly longer, depending on what decisions are made after opening arguments and follow-up questions from senators.
Removing t he president would require the approval of two- thirds of the Senate, which, bar ring unforeseen
disclosures or events, is highly unlikely given that the majority of the Senate is Republican.
Lankford and Inhofe said in interviews on Tuesday that Trump's actions did not merit impeachment and that, unlike the previous two presidents who stood trial in the Senate, Trump had committed no crime.
Lankford said, “The first question the Senate has to actually resolve is: Is that phone call impeachable?” Do you remove a president from office based on that phone call?”
The Senate did not
remove Andrew Johnson in 1869 or Bill Clinton in 1999 because their crimes did not merit removal, Lankford said.
“This is a different kind of trial,” Lankford said. “It's not just about guilt or innocence ... You could have some folks in a normal trial be convicted guilty but then have a very light punishment. That's not so in this one. The only decision that the Senate has is: Should the president be removed from office or not? Does it rise to that level?”
In ho fe said Trump was acting within his
authority in his dealings with the Ukraine president last year. Inhofe said he would prefer the trial to end before the State of the Union address on Feb. 4 and that the outcome was likely a foregone conclusion.
“I would say that's true unless there's new evidence that comes up,” he said. “I can't imagine what it would be, any evidence that they could find that they did not find in all of those weeks that led up to this point. I would say I can't imagine votes being changed unless there's new evidence.”