Trump Wins Witness Vote 51-49 – Acquittal Looks Solid

Posted on January 31, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 31, 2020

The Democrat House managers spent all day pathetically talking into the wind. But the decisions of Senators Alexander and Murkowski tipped the scales in a 51-49 vote against calling witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. With that, acquittal for the president is likely relatively close at hand.

Though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could still propose a series of amendments, all debatable for two hours, to hold up the verdicts for some time.

It is reported that negotiations are going on right now to finish the trial next week at the very latest. The Democrats may want the extra time to make Trump give the upcoming State of the Union address still under threat of impeachment. At that event they very well may try to embarrass the president in some way.

There is a also rumor the Democrats may eventually boycott the remaining votes by walking out of the Senate, only voting “present”, or some other kind of spoiled loser maneuver.

Senators Romney and Collins bucked the GOP and the president by voting for witnesses. Susan Collins will not pay a big price for her rebellion in moderate Maine. But in conservative Utah Mitt Romney could very well see a primary challenge.

A state legislator in Utah has already proposed a measure allowing for the recall of U.S. Senators, that’s how mad the Utah GOP is at Mittens for selling out his party and country.

Democrats wasted all day calling for the same witnesses they had every change to call during the House hearings they ran last month. But they decided not to call them then, waiting for the higher PR platform of the Senate to pull out their bag of tricks.

It was an error, as they don’t control the Senate. However, the Democrats hoped a combination of lies, media pressure, and threats would make GOP Senators come around and vote to extend the trial by weeks and then yet again vote to remove the president from office.

The plan crashed and burned on Friday, the smoldering embers lighting the way to presidential victory.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Trump Wins Witness Vote 51-49 – Acquittal Looks Solid appeared first on The Political Insider.

Toomey Proposes One Witness Deal in Senate Trial

Posted on January 28, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 28, 2020

Pennsylvania GOP Senator Pat Toomey, a Trump supporter but not particularly close to the White House, is reportedly floating a plan that would permit the Democrats and the Trump defense team one witness each during the impeachment trial of President Trump in the Senate.

He bills it as a compromise that would limit the time spent on witnesses and would avoid a potential Trump loss on the question when it comes up soon to a Senate vote.

The vote could be won with a simple majority of 51 and several Senators out of the 53 member GOP caucus, to include Alexander, Collins, Romney, Murkowski, McSally, and Gardner, are said to be thinking about supporting the current Democrat proposal for unlimited witnesses.

The Democrats would need four GOP turncoats to win that vote.

Collins, McSally, and Gardner are up for reelection this year in light red to purple states and they may be thinking they need to vote for the Democrat measure to keep swing and moderate support. Toomey believes this gambit will keep them and the other possible rebels on board.

LifeZette has learned that Toomey has spoken directly with Romney and Collins on the issue and they have not shot it down out of hand.

Who would those witnesses be?

According to Capitol Hill staffers on both sides of the aisle the Democrats would go with John Bolton and the GOP defense team is leaning towards informer Eric Ciaramella or Adam Schiff.

If Bolton testified against Trump and said the president directly linked Ukrainian military aid to a political hit on Biden it would mark the greatest case of political betrayal DC has seen in a while. It would also be the Fort Sumter in outright political warfare between the Warhawk and America First wings of the GOP.

Putting Ciaramella on the stand could expose his partisan nature and his lack of direct knowledge of everything he alleges, thus undercutting the entire Democrat case.

Watching Schiff squirm under cross examination from Jay Sekulow, Eric Herschmann, or, please God, Alan Dershowitz, would not only be spiritually satisfying on the order of a Bach High Mass but would set forth the firm case that the entire House process was a sham from the beginning.

Witnesses would also add to the drama of the proceeding and the media feeding would only get more frenzied.

The vote on the issue could happen this week.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Toomey Proposes One Witness Deal in Senate Trial appeared first on The Political Insider.

Congressional Democrats Add Insult to Injury by Alienating Second Possible Impeachment Trial Swing Vote

Posted on January 25, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 24, 2020

The only way the Dems had a shred of a chance of convicting President Donald Trump in the current Senate impeachment trial was by bringing over several GOP Senators on early votes that could start a rockslide towards GOP guilty votes.

So what do they do?

They insult the Senate.

Specifically House impeachment manager Jerry Nadler, who this analyst has had a run in with in the past, told the Senate they were engaged in a “cover up” if they did not vote with him and that the Senate itself was also “on trial.”

In rebuttal, presidential counsel Pat Cipollone gave as good as he got.

As we reported earlier on Friday, Nadler’s tone did not sit well with possible swing vote Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) who publicly registered her distaste and signaled her non-happiness with Dem tactics. That cannot help their case with her.

Now Politico is reporting that fellow possible swing trial vote Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) was so ticked off at Nadler that she sent a note to presiding judge U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

She commented to Politico, “It reminded me that if we were in a normal debate in the Senate, that the rule would be invoked to strike the words of the senator for impugning another senator.

So, I did write a note raising the issue of whether there’d been a violation of the rules. I’m going to cast my vote regardless of the congressman’s performance. His negative comments about the Senate will not have any impact.”

Oh yes they will.

That note, and no doubt his own observations, caused Roberts to tell the assembled pols and lawyers, “It is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body.”

He continued, “One reason it has earned that title is because its members avoid speaking in a manner, and using language, that is not conducive to civil discourse.”

If the GOP 53 vote shield wall holds then the Dems not only have come all this way for nothing, dragging the nation and the government along with them, but they may be forced to give their own Senators vote waivers to protect those who hail from Trump states.

If that comes about, Nadler may regret his words. But the president won’t.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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