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Republicans block Democrats on witnesses, set up Trump acquittal on Wednesday

Hindustan Times, Washington | ByYashwant Raj
Feb 02, 2020 06:17 AM IST

The White House had wanted an earlier vote so the president could have touted being vindicated in his annual state of the union address scheduled for Tuesday. Republican leaders couldn’t deliver, however, because their own senators wanted more time for discussions.

The Republican-led US Senate blocked the Democrats’ attempt to for more witnesses and evidence in the ongoing trial of President Donald Trump in party-line vote on Friday setting up his acquittal, which had been a foregone outcome, in a final vote on the articles of impeachment on Wednesday.

The resolution was defeated 49-51, with Democrats failing to break away two more Republicans in the 100-member body. Republicans hold the 100-member Senate in a 53-47 majority. Democrats tried one more time on Friday evening, but were thwarted again, leaving them staring at defeat.

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Charles Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, slammed the outcome as “one of the worst tragedies” and told reporters, “Americans will know that this trial was not a real trial. It had no witnesses, no documents … and that it is a tragedy on a very large scale.”

President Trump, who has been railing against the trial in tweets and remarks, accused Democrats of “scamming” the country as the Senate moved towards the vote. “The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats keep chanting “fairness”, when they put on the most unfair Witch Hunt in the history of the U.S. Congress.”

The White House had wanted an earlier vote so the president could have touted being vindicated in his annual state of the union address scheduled for Tuesday. Republican leaders couldn’t deliver, however, because their own senators wanted more time for discussions.

But the defeat of resolution, albeit narrowly, moved by Democrats to call former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney as witnesses and to seek more evidence demonstrated Republican caucus was not abandoning their president, despite the defection of a few.

The most anticipated of the Friday votes fell 49-51, with only two Republicans, Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, voting in support of calling more witnesses.

The final Senate vote is now set for 4 pm (2:30 am in India) on Wednesday. Senators will make speeches until then, starting Monday, to explain their vote, and their reasons.

Trump’s acquittal had been a foregone outcome, with 67 votes needed to convict him and remove from office. And there was no way Democrats could persuade 20 Republicans to vote to convict the president. They had hoped to win over some more with fresh evidence, specially the explosive new information coming from the manuscript of Bolton’s upcoming book in which he has claimed to have been told personally by Trump to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

Trump was impeached last December by the House of Representatives for abusing the powers of his office to coerce Ukraine to investigate his rivals by withholding military aid and a White House meeting and obstructing congress. The Senate was to determine whether or not he should also be removed from office.

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