Trump heads for impeachment acquittal ahead of final voting
● Senate opens with four-hour debate on calling witnesses
Donald Trump appeared headed for all-butcertain impeachment acquittal as senators prepared yesterday to reject efforts to call more witnesses and moved to start bringing a close to the third impeachment trial in American history.
The timing of a final vote on Trump was still uncertain.
The Senate opened with four hours set for arguments on the question of calling more witnesses
The outcome was increasingly clear after a key Republican, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, announced he didn’t need to see or hear more testimony. He said the Democrats had proved their case, that Trump abused power and obstructed Congress, but he did not think Trump’s actions rose to the impeachable level.
As the Senate opened, another Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, announced she, too, would oppose, saying the proceedings “degraded” the institution.
“I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate,” she said. “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.”
Separately, the New York Times reported yesterday that a book manuscript by Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton describes a May meeting in which Bolton claims that Trump ordered him to call the Ukrainian president, Volodypresident myr Zelenskiy, to encourage him to meet Rudy Giuliani, the president’s private attorney.
Bolton never made the call, he writes in his account, which adds detail to the prosecutors’ contention that Trump pressured Zelinskiiy to help with investigations to help Trump politically while Trump was withholding US military aid as leverage.
This was two months before Trump’s now-famous phone call with Zelinskiiy which is a focus of the impeachment charges.
Trump denied making the statements.
Eager for acquittal, the president and his allies in the Republican majority are brushing past new revelations from Bolton as well as historic norms that could make this the first Senate impeachment trial without witnesses.
They resisted any efforts by
Democrats to keep the proceedings going for weeks.
Voting on the witness question was expected late last night after hours of debate, with other votes stretching well into the evening. The timing was not set.
Democrats warned the outcome won’t mean a true acquittal for Trump but a cover-up.
“They’re about to dismiss this with a shrug and a ‘Who cares?’ ” said the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, Patty Murray of Washington. “The full truth will come out.”
The impeachment of the president is playing out in an election year before a divided nation. Primary voting begins on Monday in Iowa and Trump wants action on his trial finished in time for his State of the Union address next Tuesday. Protesters stood outside the Capitol as senators arrived yesterday but few visitors have been watching from the Senate galleries.