Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said late Thursday he would oppose calling witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, a decision that means the trial is all but certain to come to a swift end without hearing from witnesses or subpoenaing documents.
Senator Lamar Alexander
“I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense,” Alexander said in a statement shortly after the Senate gaveled out of session Thursday evening.
Alexander’s decision makes it highly likely that Friday’s vote on whether to seek additional witnesses will fail, with Republican senators coalescing around Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s argument that allowing witnesses would lead to an indefinite delay in the trial, prompt executive privilege concerns and have no impact on the outcome of the trial. A vote to end the trial could come as soon as Friday as well.
Moments before Alexander’s statement, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine became the first Republican to support calling witnesses, announcing in a statement she would support Friday’s Senate vote for witnesses and documents, which she had pushed for before the trial began.
“I believe hearing from certain witnesses would give each side the opportunity to more fully and fairly make their case, resolve any ambiguities, and provide additional clarity. Therefore, I will vote in support of the motion to allow witnesses and documents to be subpoenaed,” Collins said in a statement.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is leaning toward voting for witnesses, too, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has not said how she’ll vote, telling reporters as she left the Senate late Thursday night that she would read back through the two volumes of notes she’s taken during the trial.
“I’m going to go back to my office, put some eye drops in so I can keep reading,” she said, adding that she plans to announce her decision on Friday morning.
But even if Romney and Murkowski join Collins to back witnesses, the Senate vote would end in a 50-50 tie, and Chief Justice John Roberts is seen as highly unlikely to intervene, meaning the vote would fail.
Democrats had hoped Alexander and a handful of other GOP senators would join them in calling for witnesses in the wake of former national security adviser John Bolton’s revelations in his draft book manuscript about Trump conditioning US aid to Ukraine on investigations into Democrats. But Democrats’ options for a fourth Republican to join them in Friday’s witness vote appear to have evaporated.
Alexander had been careful not to tip his hand before his statement, saying little as the witness vote approached. Halfway through the second day of questions, he spoke up for the first time in the trial, submitting a question for the House managers to compare the bipartisanship level of the Trump impeachment to the proceedings of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
Credit: CNN
