That’s it, the Senate has voted against the motion to call new witnesses.
Senate Republicans vote down a motion that would compel more witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial pic.twitter.com/BeVV7wEHTu
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 31, 2020
AND the vote is 49-51, which means there’s no deadlock, and the Democrats’ last hope of Supreme Court Justice Roberts deciding a tie in their favor is officially DEAD.
They’re really upset:
For the first time in American history the United States Senate votes to conclude an impeachment trial without hearing direct testimony of witnesses.
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) January 31, 2020
Senate Republicans rigged a show trial to cover up what the President did.
The verdict of such a show trial will be meaningless. pic.twitter.com/ndxRyH4FB7
But as Jake Tapper mentioned on CNN, there WERE witnesses, they were just called in the articles written up by the House. I guess we all have to wait for Bolton’s book to drop to find out the rest of the story! Whatever is in that book, I really doubt that it would change so many minds as to vote to remove Trump, but Democrats keep pretending there is, so… that’s it folks. It’s done, enjoy the election!
UPDATE:
From colleague Caroline McKee. Plan for Senate trial. No weekend session. Vote on several Dem proposals. Closing arguments by counsel Monday. Senators can debate impeachment on Monday/Tuesday. Vote on verdicts on both articles of impeachment next Wednesday.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 31, 2020
SO they vote on Wednesday. Some are angry that this will ruin Trump’s state of the union address:
The vote for acquittal will happen on Wednesday afternoon.
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) February 1, 2020
Very disappointing that they’re not holding the vote tonight, BEFORE the State of the Union.
President Trump deserves this acquittal more than anything.
He’s been fighting for our country relentlessly, ACQUIT him now!
Uh yeah, if you know the history of the state of the union, you’ll know why this is a problem. It’s not meant for the president to use as a speech of self-glorification, it used to be just a short summary sent to the Congress. Given that, I don’t see the problem with the vote taking place after the SOTU.