The move comes after a Republican congresswoman confirmed reports that Trump sided with the Capitol-storming mob during a phone call with Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
Closing arguments were expected Saturday with no witnesses called. But lead Democratic prosecutor Jamie Raskin of Maryland asked for a deposition of Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler over fresh information.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed his continued fealty to Donald Trump on Saturday morning, as he revealed plans to let the disgraced dictator off the hook for the Jan. 6 insurrection. McConnell, like 45 other Senate Republicans, continues to hide behind the fake “constitutionality” defense, which hinges on whether or not an impeachment trial can be held after the subject has left public office.
McConnell, of course, also famously refused to hold the impeachment trial while Trump was still in office, and thus made this ridiculous non-defense copout possible.
The announcement comes even as Washington state Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler and other Republicans came out to confirm that Trump knew Pence was in danger and did not care, most vividly illustrated by a nasty call with a frantic Kevin McCarthy, where the one-term tyrant mocked the House Minority Leader’s distress. This revelation also comes even as multiple senators—Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, and Ed Markey, as well as Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney as of this writing—are expressing support for witnesses.
Four Republicans voted with Democrats in support of calling witnesses: Susan Collins, Murkowski, Romney, and Ben Sasse.
After the roll was called, Lindsey Graham—who was tweeting threats against calling witnesses up to the very last second—changed his vote from “nay” at the very last possible second, leading to a final vote tally of 55-45 in favor of witnesses.
As Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner wrote Saturday, there’s no reason for the Democrat House impeachment managers not to call witnesses. The Senate is currently scheduled to be off next week, so important Senate business won’t be impacted by the additional time spent on the trial. The only thing delayed by the calling of witnesses would be a Senate mini-vacation.
McConnell’s email offers GOP senators a thinly veiled copout to the “January exception” rule, expressly saying that thanks to his refusing to hold the trial while Trump was still in office, McConnell does believe he’s given his cowardly colleagues a thin talking point to deflect valid accusations of supporting a seditious traitor and letting him get away with inciting a deadly insurrection.
McConnell says it was a “close call” but says impeachment is “primarily a tool of removal” and the Senate lacks jurisdiction . He says criminal conduct by a president in office can be prosecuted when the president is out of office pic.twitter.com/JGMTjCp2OL
The Senate voted Saturday to allow witnesses in former President Trump's second impeachment trial, a stunning development that could extend the proceedings.House Democrats prosecuting the case called for a single immediate witness to testify: Rep....
Three Democratic senators are calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment trial to be suspended to allow witnesses to be called, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
The calls from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley and Ed Markey come amid newfound attention on a story Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has been telling: that McCarthy had a heated phone call with the former president while the violent insurrection was underway at the Capitol Jan. 6.
If witnesses aren’t called, the trial will head to closing arguments Saturday.
McCarthy told Trump to call off the rioters, to which Trump falsely said he couldn’t because they were really left-wing extremists, Herrera Beutler says. McCarthy pushed back, and Trump responded "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Herrera Beutler says. Herrera Beutler, of Washington, was one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.
Tuberville, of Alabama, told POLITICO Wednesday that he spoke to Trump while the rioters got close to the Senate floor, and told him Vice President Mike Pence had been evacuated.
Both of these claims would bolster House impeachment managers’ arguments that Trump ignored calls to stop the violence.
“Looks like Trump’s BS-artist attorneys may have crossed the line from BS to something much more serious,” Whitehouse wrote in a tweet late Friday night. He pointed to an Atlantic article noting that Trump’s attorneys didn’t directly answer when asked Friday when Trump knew Pence was in danger.
“Trump’s lawyers are likely under ethics obligation to clean this up: duty of candor to a tribunal. You don’t get as counsel to make misrepresentations; if you do, you have an affirmative duty to clean it up. Tomorrow just got a lot more interesting,” wrote Whitehouse, of Rhode Island.
Whitehouse then called for the trial to be suspended to depose McCarthy and Tuberville in order to learn more about the situation, as well as calling on the Secret Service to provide details on communications to the White House about Pence’s safety.
“What did Trump know, and when did he know it?” Whitehouse wrote.
“Senator Whitehouse nailed it,” Merkley, of Oregon, said on Twitter Saturday morning in response to Whitehouse’s calls for witnesses.
Fellow Democrat Sen. Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, agreed with Whitehouse’s call for witnesses Saturday morning.
“The House Managers should ask for witnesses to be called, including anyone who communicated with Donald Trump or have direct knowledge of his actions and state of mind while he was in the White House after the Capitol was breached and while the attempted coup was ongoing,” Markey wrote in a tweet.
For many Americans this week, myself included, the traumatizing videos the House managers presented during the impeachment trial elicited a visceral response. Rarely has the American public experienced such a compelling example of the power of images and sound to communicate in ways that written texts cannot. That wrenching emotional punch needed to land with us. It's a reminder that unless we hold leaders like former President Donald Trump accountable for their dangerous and manipulative uses of misinformation, they will be free -- or worse, emboldened -- to repeat such actions in the future.
Following the latest bombshell news about Kevin McCarthy’s screaming match with Donald Trump on January 6, will House Managers request witnesses, or will today be the final day of the second impeachment trial for Trump? We’ll find out soon.
The impeachment trial is being aired on major television news networks and streamed on their websites. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.
I can’t wait to find out which Republican Senators care more about being primaried than their country, democracy, their children, their grandchildren, the truth, decency or their own name in history.
How much of this conversation was “Would you just shut the #$%@ up, Tommy?”
Senators Mike Lee and Tommy Tuberville were huddled together on the Senate floor before the trial kicked off Saturday. Trump attorneys Bruce Castor and Michael Van der veen came in and talked with them. Lindsey Graham came over to talk for a moment.
House mangers are going to ask for at least one witness! Now van der Veen claiming “there was a stipulation going around that there weren’t going to be any witnesses.” Van der Veen now says he wants “over 100 depositions.”
Van der Veen is pissed. Really wants to deliver that closing argument and go home. But sure, let’s have all the witnesses. Let’s get every damn person who ever attended a Trump rally in there. Not much I can think of that would be better than a string of Trumpies stepping up to say how “the president told us to be there.”
Rep. Raskin challenges Trump’s team to simply bring forward their client.
Van der Veen says McCarthy disclaims “the rumor” saying it didn’t happen. Now they’re saying that the conversation with Tuberville and Lee didn’t happen. Which is a lie.
Van der Veen: “It doesn’t matter what happened after the insurgents attacked this building.” That’s not a great sale to the people who were at the pointy end of the spears.
A source familiar with the work of the House Managers says former Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Marc Short has been contacted about providing information about threat to Pence. Short has not responded, the source said.
The vote passes, with Collins, Murkowski, Romney, and Sasse voting with Democrats. After the vote, Lindsey Graham changed his vote to an “aye.” Why isn’t clear, but you can be sure that the reason will turn out to be jackassery.
So, by 55 — 45, the vote passes to open debate on calling witnesses.
Witnesses themselves will also be subject to votes, and no matter what van der Veen shouts, they can do it over Zoom, or any other way, that the Senate approves. Suck it, Michael.
But the biggest point of the day may be van der Veen shouting how nothing that happened after the insurgents attacked the Capitol matters. If that wasn’t a tacit admission that the facts of how Trump handled the assault are damning, it was very near it.
The reason they're all laughing at you, Van Der Veen, is that in the Clinton impeachment trial, the testimony of witnesses was taken remotely on videotape and then played in the Senate. No one had to go down to your office in Phillyaheedelphia. https://t.co/H8SDLQWKTa
What’s happening right now, with all the little clusters around the room, is that they’re trying to work out some sort of deal. It may be that each side gets one witness, or they may allow each side to call three witnesses, or the whole thing could fall apart and Republicans could demand a thousand witnesses.
If McConnell still has any control over his caucus, there will be some kind of deal, but that’s definitely not a sure thing.
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell will vote to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, Fox News has learned, as day five of the trial is now underway.
