Senate locks in Trump trial vote after rejecting witnesses

Bloomberg

The Senate sent the months-long impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump to its final stages with a vote to acquit the president set for Wednesday, after Republicans defeated Democrats’ efforts to call new witnesses.
Senators will hear closing arguments on Monday from lawyers for both sides, then will have two days for debate before voting at 4 pm on Wednesday — pushing the votes past Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.
Moderate Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, voted against calling witnesses after being viewed as one of four in her party who might give Democrats enough support to force the Senate to call former National Security Advisor John Bolton and perhaps others.
She said the House had sent over a “flawed” impeachment and that she was “frustrated and angry at all sides.” After Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah decided to vote yes, Murkowski said the possibility that her vote would lead to a 50-50 tie weighed “heavy” on her.
Chief Justice John Roberts said, when queried by Democrats, that Senate rules require a motion to fail on a tie vote and that he wouldn’t cast a vote to change that result.
The remaining trial schedule allows Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bennet to make quick trip to Iowa before that state’s crucial caucuses on Monday night. The senators, however, will have to be back in Washington on Monday when they are required to be in their seats for four hours of closing arguments at 11 am.
After the Senate scheduled the final vote, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who had said before the trial that he would work with the White House — immediately made his way down
the table of Trump’s defense lawyers, shaking hands with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Trump’s private lawyer Jay Sekulow, and their colleagues.
With Trump assured of acquittal, there’s also a chance he may pick up one or more Democratic votes. Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said he still hasn’t decided whether he will vote to convict or acquit Trump.
The previous 51-49 vote blocking witnesses, one of the most consequential of the trial, fell mostly along party lines except for Collins and Romney. Another Republican who considered voting for witnesses, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, voted against the motion.
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that with the decision not to seek more evidence, the Senate “turned away from truth and went along with a sham trial.“ “America will remember this day, unfortunately, when the Senate did not live up to its responsibilities,” Schumer said. McConnell called Trump to get his approval for the vote schedule, and the president agreed, according to a person familiar with their conversation.
The new schedule gives senators time before the final vote to publicly explain on the Senate floor how they decided whether Trump deserved to be removed from office on the House charges that he abused the power of his office.

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