Sen Whitehouse: Congress Examining Role Of Some Gop Officials In Capitol Riot
If these shocking allegations are true, then taken together, prosecutors may be able to link rioters to GOP senators and link GOP senators to the president, a pattern that would place them all in the same, massive conspiracy. Such a plot to overthrow the U.S. government by American citizens would suggest that our democracy is facing a peril graver than any we have seen since the Civil War.
Impeachment, of course, does not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. For most senators watching, more proof that Trump incited a violent riot is not needed. For others, notably the 44 GOP senators who have indicated they will vote to acquit, the question of causation phrased as whether there was indeed incitement still offers an off-ramp.
As one of us urged with the last impeachment, given the critical importance to the country of the outcome of the trial, the Senate should not be in a hurry. Calling witnesses would likely require issuing subpoenas and then having the patience to enforce them. But given that the Democrats hold the bare majority needed to make that call, the choice is theirs.
Republicans Block Impeachment Witnesses Clearing Path For Trump Acquittal
The narrow vote came after Republican senators said they did not need to hear more evidence, and pressed toward acquitting President Trump next week.
By Michael D. Shear and Nicholas Fandos
WASHINGTON The Senate brought President Trump to the brink of acquittal on Friday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress, as Republicans voted to block consideration of new witnesses and documents in his impeachment trial and shut down a final push by Democrats to bolster their case for the presidents removal.
In a nearly party-line vote after a bitter debate, Democrats failed to win support from the four Republicans they needed. With Mr. Trumps acquittal virtually certain, the presidents allies rallied to his defense, though some conceded he was guilty of the central allegations against him.
The Democrats push for more witnesses and documents failed 49 to 51, with only two Republicans, Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, joining Democrats in favor. A vote on the verdict is planned for Wednesday.
As they approached the final stage of the third presidential impeachment proceeding in United States history, Democrats condemned the witness vote and said it would render Mr. Trumps trial illegitimate and his acquittal meaningless.
Still, those Republicans said, they were unwilling to remove a president fewer than 10 months before he is to face voters.
You dont apply capital punishment for every offense, Mr. Alexander added.
transcript
Louisiana Gop Votes To Censure Sen Cassidy
Literally minutes after Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., voted to convict President Donald Trump the Louisiana GOP voted to censure him. Cassidy was one of seven Republicans to cross party lines.
“The Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Louisiana has unanimously voted to censure Senator Bill Cassidy for his vote cast earlier today to convict former President Donald J. Trump on the impeachment charge,” the Republican Party of Louisiana said in a statement.
Cassidy, who vacillated between convicting and acquitting the president this week, has been a senator since 2014. He was previously a congressman from the state. A censure officially condemns a politician, but does not carry any further power, such as removal from office.
“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person,” Cassidy said in a statement. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”
-ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan
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Republicans Are Open To Impeachment Witnesses But Democrats Need A 4th
Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney seem open to witnesses in President Trumps impeachment trial. With one more Republican, Democrats could commandeer the proceedings.
WASHINGTON The Capitol math is clear: Democrats need only four Republican votes to force the Senate to subpoena witnesses like John R. Bolton, the former White House national security adviser, to testify in President Trumps impeachment trial. Three have signaled they may be open to doing so: Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
That leaves Democrats searching for an elusive fourth vote.
The question of whether four Republicans will defect and if so, who looms large in the Capitol as the Senate prepares to receive articles of impeachment from the House on Wednesday, prompting the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. If they did, Democrats could effectively commandeer the Senate floor during the proceeding and defy Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, by moving to call witnesses.
That could derail Mr. McConnells hopes to secure a quick acquittal of Mr. Trump with little debate, drastically altering the course of the trial and potentially, of Mr. Trumps presidency.
Am I curious about what Ambassador Bolton would have to say? Yes, I am, Ms. Murkowski told reporters, according to Alaska Public Radio. But she said she would not prejudge the need for him to testify until after the cases are presented.
Sen Mcconnell Who Voted To Acquit Trump Says Former President Is Practically And Morally Responsible For Provoking Attack On Capitol
In remarks on the Senate floor after he voted to acquit Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday that the former president is practically and morally responsible for provoking the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but that the Senate was upholding the Constitution by acquitting him.
The Senates decision today does not condone anything that happened on or before that terrible day, McConnell said. It simply shows that senators did what the former president failed to do: We put our constitutional duty first.
Trump, by contrast, appeared to take his acquittal as a vindication of his actions before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack. In a statement, Trump called his second impeachment by the House another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country and hinted at a return to national politics.
McConnell spent much of his remarks condemning Trumps actions and directly linking them to the Jan. 6 insurrection. The former presidents supporters, he argued, launched their violent attack because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth, because he was angry he lost an election.
Theres no question none that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day, McConnell said at one point. No question about it.
He argued, however, that it was beyond the power of the Senate to hold Trump accountable for those actions.
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Impeachment Trial Highlights: A Showdown Over Calling Witnesses
Senators rejected a call for additional witnesses in President Trumps impeachment trial, dealing a fatal blow to efforts by Democrats to bring about new evidence.
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Mr. Blunt? No. No. Mr. Booker? Yes. Aye. Mr. Boozman? No. No. Are there any senators in the chamber wishing to change his or her vote? If not, the yeas are 49, the nays are 51. The motion is not agreed to. This will set a new precedent. This will be cited in impeachment trials from this point to the end of history. The documents the president is hiding will come out. The witnesses the president is concealing will tell their stories. And we will be asked why we didnt want to hear that information when we had the chance. There is a way to decide right up front in some quick way whether theres really a triable issue, whether you really need to go to all the trouble of calling in new witnesses and having more evidence in something like that. Its not just about hearing from witnesses. You need documents. The documents dont lie. The question here before this body is, what do you want your place in history to be? Do you want your place in history to be, lets hear the truth? Or that we dont want to hear it? You did hear evidence. You heard evidence from 13 different witnesses, 192 video clips, and as my colleague the deputy White House counsel said, over 28,000 pages of documents.
It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed, Ms. Murkowski added
Democrats Hopeful To Convict Trump
The ball is in the court of the Republicans as a minimum of 17 GOP senators would have to join all the Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority required to find Trump guilty of “incitement of insurrection.”
While the Republican vote seems like an unlikely scenario, Democrats hope;they can win over enough Republican senators to convict Trump for his role in January’s Capitol riots.
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Susan Collins of Maine;are some of the names the Democrats could seek to persuade.;
These four;are frequent critics of Trump and have said in the past that he incited the insurrection. They have also joined with Democrats twice to vote against the Republican efforts to dismiss the impeachment trial.
But in what appears to be a shock for the Democrats, Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell said Saturday he will vote against convicting the former president.
While describing the vote on whether to convict as a “close call,” McConnell told colleagues in a letter that “I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we, therefore, lack jurisdiction.”
“I will vote to acquit,” McConnell added, leaving it highly likely that the Senate will fail to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to convict Trump.
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Trump Attorney Blames Senate For Not Trying Trump In January Does Not Mention Sen Mcconnell Blocked Trial
Trump attorney Michael van der Veen on Saturday blamed the Senate for not holding the impeachment trial in January, without mentioning that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the chamber from doing so.
The January exception argument is a creation of the House managers own conduct by delaying they sat on the article, van der Veen said. They could have tried the president while he was still in office if they really believed he was an imminent threat. They didnt.
After last months bipartisan impeachment vote in the House, McConnell said Trump had simply no chance of a fair or serious trial before Bidens inauguration Jan. 20.
McConnells office informed aides to then-Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer that he would not agree to immediately reconvene the Senate that week, according to a person familiar with the matter, despite pressure from Schumer to invoke rarely used emergency powers that allow the two Senate leaders to unilaterally reconvene.
Van der Veen also on Saturday falsely claimed the House impeachment managers had not referenced the Constitution or due process in making their closing arguments.
Several of the managers had done just that. Just minutes earlier, Rep. Joe Neguse had called out Trumps defense team for not allowing the former president to be a witness.
You cant claim theres no due process when you wont participate in the process, Neguse said.
Glenn Kessler contributed to this report.
Vote Comes After Surprise Call For Witnesses
Closing the House managers’ argument, Raskin played to senators’ sense of history in urging them to convict the former President for inciting the rioters to attack the Capitol and failing to stop them after the violence unfolded.
“This is almost certainly how you will be remembered by history,” Raskin said. “That might not be fair. It really might not be fair. But none of us can escape the demands of history and destiny right now. Our reputations and our legacy will be inextricably intertwined with what we do here, and with how you exercise your oath to do impartial justice.”
Van der Veen argued that Trump did not incite a riot that had been preplanned, again repeating the falsehood that the rioters represented both left and right fringe groups, when video evidence and court documents conclusively show that the riot was perpetrated by Trump supporters.
The final vote came quickly on the fifth day of the Senate trial after a surprise Democratic request for witnesses earlier Saturday threw the trial briefly into chaos.
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Impeachment Trial: Trump Lawyers Wrap Up Defense
Closing arguments in former US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial;started Saturday after the;Senate reached a deal to skip witness testimony.
US senators had been;close to concluding the trial;, when proceedings were briefly halted as Democrats, along with five Republicans, initially won a vote to call witnesses.
The trial rules say that if senators agree to hear witnesses, votes to hear additional testimony would be allowed.
Hours later, senators agreed;to accept new information from a Republican congresswoman about Trump’s actions on the day of the deadly Capitol siege on January 6 and proceed from there without calling witnesses.
The ex-president stands accused of;inciting;the deadly;insurrection when he;called on a crowd of supporters to march on Congress, which was in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
White House Expects Gop Defections On Calling Witnesses In Senate Impeachment Trial
Washington ;The White House is preparing for some Republican senators to join Democrats in voting to call witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, which could get underway in the coming days.
Senior White House officials tell CBS News they increasingly believe that at least four Republicans, and likely more, will vote to call witnesses. In addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and possibly Cory Gardner of Colorado, the White House also views Rand Paul of Kentucky as a “wild card” and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as an “institutionalist” who might vote to call witnesses, as one official put it.;
Last week, Collins said she was working with a “fairly small group” of GOP senators to allow new testimony, adding that her colleagues “should be completely open to calling witnesses.” Romney has expressed an interest in hearing from former national security adviser John Bolton, who has said he would testify under subpoena. Murkowski said last week that the Senate should proceed as it did during the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial.;
Gardner and Alexander have both said the Senate trial should be fair and impartial. Paul has said the president should be able to call his own witnesses, including the whistleblower whose complaint about Ukraine sparked the impeachment inquiry in the first place.
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Takeaways From The Trump Impeachment Trial After Defense Wraps Up
Raskin suggested deposing Herrera Beutler by Zoom for an hour. Trump attorney Michael van der Veen responded that if the Democratic House managers wish to call witnesses, he will need “over 100 depositions.”
Five Republicans voted with Democrats Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who changed his vote to yes after initially voting no.
Van der Veen said he would oppose holding any depositions by Zoom, saying they should be “in person in my office in Philadelphia,” drawing laughter from the Senate. “I haven’t laughed at any of you,” van der Veen responded.
Confusion on the floor
After the vote, the Senate ground to a halt, amid general confusion among senators about how to proceed from here.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., when asked whether he was expecting this, threw up his hands. “Shelby says he’s seen three of these and this is the craziest,” referring to Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby.
Before the deal was reached to avoid witnesses, an informal adviser to the Trump defense team dismissed the Democrats’ move, saying there was a risk that it would drag out the trial for weeks, all so that they can depose a witness whose contribution was already made public in a press release.
Trump attorney Bruce Castor said his side would call “lots” of witnesses. Van der Veen threatened to call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Harris as witnesses.
Trump Impeachment Trial Live Updates: Biden Says Charge ‘not In Dispute’ In 1st Comments On Acquittal
Biden remembered those who were killed and called for unity going forward.
Senate votes to acquit former President Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial ended with a 57-43 vote to acquit in the Senate. He faced a single charge of incitement of insurrection over his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
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Here Are The Republicans Who Voted To Hear Witnesses At Trump’s Impeachment Trial
By Clare Foran and Ali Zaslav, CNN
Five Republicans voted with Democrats on Saturday in favor of allowing witnesses during former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, a move that now means it is unclear when the trial will conclude. The final vote tally in the Senate was 55-45.
- Susan Collins of Maine
- Ben Sasse of Nebraska
- Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Kristin Wilson contributed to this report.
Republicans Vote To Silence Impeachment Witnesses Fast
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On Friday night, lawmakers voted on the issue of allowing further evidence in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. As there were no doctors on hand to perform emergency spinal cord transplants, Republicans defeated the attempt to introduce relevant witnesses and documents 5149, with just Mitt Romney and Susan Collins voting with Democrats. Thats obviously a sad and depressing outcome but, in the long run, probably just sped up the inevitable, i.e., Republicans acquitting the president and paving the way for him to continue abusing his power for the next one to five years. And rather than attempt to make the case that Trump did nothing wrong and thats why theyre trying to wrap this thing up ASAP, GOP lawmakers are just coming out and saying it: He did it and we dont care. And thats not some biased liberal-media interpretation of what theyve saidthose are the actual words coming out of their mouths.
In a Medium post entitled My Statement on the Presidents Impeachment Trial, writes:
Rubio doesnt note that, as of March of 2019, we didnt know about the presidents alleged attempt to extort Ukraine for his personal gain, but we digress. He continues:
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But apparently that information is neither here nor there.
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