USA TODAY International Edition
Historic showdown finally comes to vote today
WASHINGTON – It’s decision day for the Senate – and a pivotal day for President Donald Trump.
The Senate impeachment trial will end Wednesday when senators, who have served as judges and jurors through weeks of arguments and debate, vote on whether to acquit Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, or to convict him and remove him from office.
The historic vote at 4 p. m. EST culminates months of investigations and debate over Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, while withholding $ 391 million in security aid. For senators, the vote will be one of the most- remembered of their careers and will surely play a role in 2020 congressional campaigns.
On Monday and Tuesday, senators spent hours explaining their positions in 10- minute speeches on the Senate floor. Those speeches will continue Wednesday.
But the result of the final vote has been anticipated for months, even before the House voted Dec. 18 to impeach Trump on two articles of impeachment: abuse of power for
The decision is expected at 4 p. m. EST after months of debate and investigations and weeks of legal arguments.
the alleged Ukraine pressure campaign and obstruction of Congress for directing his administration to defy subpoenas for witnesses and documents. That’s because a two- thirds majority of the Senate is required to convict and remove a president from office, which is unlikely in a chamber with 53 Republicans and 47 members of the Democratic caucus.
The trial has hinged on whether the seven impeachment managers, all Democratic House members prosecuting the case, could make a convincing enough case against Trump to persuade enough Senate Republicans to vote with Democrats on the president’s conviction.
The managers argued that Trump tried to cheat in the 2020 election and then tried to cover it up. They argued that if left unchecked, Trump would gain monarchical power to ignore congressional oversight under the guise of executive privilege.
“You can’t trust this president to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country,” said the lead manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, DCalif. “A man without character or ethical compass will not find his way.”
But Trump’s defense team argued that Democrats’ accusations were too vague to enforce and that impeachment would threaten future presidents with removal over policy disputes if he were convicted. The defense lawyers argued that neither of the two articles alleged violations of criminal statutes, as was customary in previous impeachments.
“We have an impeachment that is purely partisan and political. It’s opposed by bipartisan members of the House,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone. “It is wrong. There is only one answer to that, and the answer is to reject those articles of impeachment, to have confidence in the American people, to have confidence in the result of the upcoming election, to have confidence and respect for the last election and not throw it out.”
The vote will end only the third Senate trial of a president, after the acquittals of Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., announced the inquiry Sept. 24. The House voted to authorize it Oct. 31. While previous impeachments were bipartisan, no House Republicans joined Democrats to impeach Trump in December.
The House provided the Senate with 28,578 pages of evidence in the trial, including 17 depositions of current and former government officials. Senators asked 180 questions of House managers and Trump’s defense team.
But congressional Democrats wanted to hear from more witnesses, most notably former Trump national security adviser John Bolton after excerpts from his forthcoming book surfaced during the trial and appeared to counter the president’s defense.
But on Friday, Republicans rejected
Democratic requests to subpoena additional witnesses or documents largely along party lines. Only two Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah – joined Democrats in an unsuccessful effort to call Bolton.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- Ky., said Democrats had investigated Trump and sought his impeachment since he was elected in 2016.
“We must vote to reject the House abuse of power,” McConnell said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Vote to protect our institutions. Vote to reject new precedents that would reduce the framers’ design to rubble. Vote to keep factional fever from boiling over and scorching our republic. Vote to acquit the president of these charges.”
Sen. John Thune, R- S. D., said the House managers failed to meet the “high bar” set by the nation’s founders to remove a president from office.
“Removing the president from office – and from the ballots for the upcoming election – would almost certainly plunge the country into even greater political turmoil,” he said.
A few Republicans acknowledged Trump’s conduct was inappropriate but said it wasn’t worthy of removing him from office.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R- Tenn., said that it was inappropriate for Trump to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent but that “the Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year’s ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate.”
“The president’s behavior was shameful and wrong,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R- Alaska, but the foundation of the House case “was rotten.”
Democrats argued that Trump should be removed or his misconduct would continue. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D- N. Y., said House managers made a compelling case, and Republican opposition to gathering more evidence “fails the laugh test.”
“The Republicans refused to get the evidence because they were afraid of what it would show, and that’s all that needs to be said,” Schumer said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D- Md., said failure to convict Trump would send a terrible signal “that this president and any future president can commit crimes against the Constitution and the American people and get away with it.”
For some senators, the vote could weigh heavily in 2020 congressional campaigns.