REPORT: McConnell may already have the votes to defeat witnesses and move to final verdict

by The Right Scoop

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton is reporting that based on what he saw at the GOP lunch, the votes are now there to defeat a motion for witnesses and proceed to a final verdict:

Here’s more from Bolton:

It was clear to Senate Republicans on Wednesday after a morning meeting between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that the question of having additional witnesses is settled and the Senate will vote Friday to wrap up the impeachment trial.

There was no discussion of witnesses at a Senate GOP lunch meeting Wednesday, which was held a couple hours after McConnell and Murkowski met for about 20 to 30 minutes.

That was seen as a sign by several senators that Democrats will fail to convince four Republicans to join them in calling for witnesses. Without a vote to hear from witnesses, the trial could end as soon as Friday.

“We’re going to get it done by Friday, hopefully,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said following the meeting.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), emerging from the lunch, said “I think I can say the mood is good.”

Braun expressed confidence that McConnell will be able to keep his conference unified enough to defeat a motion to consider subpoenas for additional witnesses and documents.

“If I had to guess, no witnesses,” he said.

“We’ll be in a place where I think everyone is going to have their mind made up and I believe that we’ll be able to move to a verdict and the witness question will be clear at that point,” Braun added.

Murkowski did not attend the lunch.

Romney and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are both expected to back witnesses. Murkowski has been seen as a third possible vote, though she had not announced any decision.

Instead of discussing the possibility of having former national security adviser John Bolton appear as a witness in the trial at Wednesday’s meeting, lawmakers talked about voting Friday to move quickly to an up-or-down vote on two articles of impeachment.

“There was no discussion about that today,” Rounds said.

Instead, Rounds said the discussion was about how “we’re moving forward.”

I really like how that sounds.

CBS’s Nancy Cordes describes what she’s hearing and suggests the argument being used by McConnell and other Republicans is that if the president is going to be acquitted, then why even call witnesses and drag this out for weeks when it ultimately won’t matter:

Just fyi, ignore the statement that “Republican leadership does not believe they have the votes to block witnesses at this time” in the tweet. I was ready to report that as recent, but after watching the video, Cordes was clearly just repeating what McConnell said last night in the video and not proclaiming this as a recent statement from Republican leadership.


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.