Wall Street Journal: McConnell Says GOP Doesn’t Have Votes to Block Impeachment Witnesses
Senate majority leader makes remarks in private Republican meeting.
WASHINGTON—Republican leaders said they don’t currently have enough votes to block witnesses in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, people familiar with the matter said, after his legal team concluded its efforts to counter Democrats’ charges that the president abused power and obstructed Congress.
On the third and final day of presentations by the Trump legal team, lawyers tried to cast doubts on the importance and credibility of allegations by former national security adviser John Bolton about the president’s motives for freezing aid to Ukraine.
But at a meeting of all Republican senators late Tuesday, GOP leaders told their conference that they don’t currently have the votes to prevent witnesses from being called, people familiar with the matter said. Republicans had hoped to wrap up the trial with an acquittal of the president by this week, but Democrats have said Mr. Bolton should appear under oath to offer a firsthand account of the president’s motivations for freezing aid to Ukraine—a matter at the heart of the impeachment case.
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Update #1: GOP doesn’t have votes to block witnesses, McConnell says (AP)
Update #2: Graham: There will be 51 GOP votes to call Bidens, whistleblower (The Hill)
WNU Editor: As someone who lives outside the U.S., I must admit that American justice is strange. I never knew that you can have a trial where the witnesses are negotiated and voted upon by the jurors. And the punchline is that I doubt that the witnesses that the Democrats want to call will make a tangible difference in this impeachment trial. The phone call transcript/summary was released months ago, Ukraine did get their aid, and Ukrainian officials have made it clear that they never felt pressured from the White House. So what can these witnesses add? That they heard President Trump voice a desire or an opinion to impose conditions on Ukraine aid, but in the end did not follow through for reasons that only President Trump knows. Can an opinion be submitted as evidence? Is the President's thoughts an impeachable offence? For the Democrats and many others, it appears the answer is yes.
As to what do I expect in the coming days, Republican Senator McConnell is a man who now expects a handfull of Republicans will support some of the witnesses that the Democrats want. If true, this trial will then run into next week (and probably beyond), escalate calls for more investigations, and bog the Senate into a process that will satisfy no one. The State of the Union address will also be delayed.
If witnesses are to be called, I would like to hear from the "whistle-blower", former Vice-President Biden, and his son Hunter Biden. The Biden's testimony will shed a clearer light on why President Trump felt motivated to investigate their involvement in Ukraine, and the "whistle-blower's" testimony will clarify why he felt this phone call was "dangerous" and needed to be reported, thereby setting in motion to where we are today. Since the Republicans have the majority in the Senate, they can do whatever they want. And if they want to placate their Democrat counterparts and the witnesses that they want, so be it. But if this is the course that some Republican Senators want to proceed, my suggestion to them is that they better not limit or put barriers to the defence team when they make their call for witnesses. Because if they do, you can take this to the bank, the Republican base will revolt against them.