Key GOP Senator to Reveal His Vote on Impeachment Witnesses
Senator Graham said he was “getting more optimistic” that Republicans would be able to shut down Democrats on calling witnesses.
(Bloomberg) -- Senator Lamar Alexander plans to reveal Thursday night how he will vote on calling witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, potentially telegraphing the outcome of a pivotal decision that senators will make on Friday.
With the Senate having wrapped up the second of two days questioning House prosecutors and Trump’s defense team, the Tennessee Republican was set to announce his intentions.
If he backs witnesses, that would give Democrats a better chance of prevailing with their demand for testimony. If not, Democrats will be left searching for at least two more GOP senators willing to defy Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Alexander, who is retiring and won’t be running for re-election in November, will be taking a position after many of his Republican colleagues spent the day expressing growing confidence that they have the votes to block testimony and acquit the president as early as Friday.
With the pressure on a handful of GOP senators who haven’t said whether they would back subpoenas for witnesses, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Republican leaders and some of Trump’s closest allies say the trial could move rapidly to its conclusion.
“The momentum is on the side of having the final votes and judgment tomorrow,” Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso said during a break in the trial.
Only Utah’s Mitt Romney said he firmly backed hearing from Bolton. Maine Senator Susan Collins faces a tough re-election battle in November, signaled that she is likely to support calling witnesses. Republican Lisa Murkowski, another potential vote for testimony, refused to discuss her latest thinking after leaving a meeting with McConnell Wednesday morning.
Murkowski on Thursday night asked the president’s legal team why the Senate shouldn’t call Bolton to testify. She noted that Trump administration witnesses said Trump denied linking aid for Ukraine to investigations, while reports say Bolton wrote in his upcoming book that the president made a direct link.
Trump lawyer Patrick Philbin said that subpoenaing Bolton would set a bad precedent for future presidential impeachments by allowing the House to submit an incomplete case to the Senate.
“It will do grave damage to this body as an institution to say that the process in the House doesn’t really have to be complete,” Philbin said. “That’s not the way this chamber should allow impeachments to be presented to it.”
But she also joined with Alexander and several other Republicans in asking Trump’s defense team whether testimony from Bolton would make any difference because the allegation still wouldn’t rise to an impeachable defense.
Defense Case
That gave Trump’s lawyers an opening to hammer home a point they’ve been making repeatedly over the past two days. Philbin and the other Trump attorneys have argued that if the president is acting with mixed motives, for both policy and political reasons, the House does not have a case for impeachment.
McConnell has been working behind the scenes to shore up support for bringing the trial to a quick conclusion, after he told GOP senators in a closed-door meeting Tuesday he didn’t yet have the votes to block witnesses. Trump faces articles of impeachment from the Democrat-led House that charge him with obstructing Congress and abuse of power.
Friday will start with two hours of arguments from each side, which Barrasso said could serve as a closing argument. Then the Senate would vote on the question of calling witnesses. If that fails, the chamber would move toward a vote on final judgment on the two impeachment articles against Trump.
With a 67-vote super-majority needed to convict in the GOP-led chamber, Trump is expect to be easily acquitted.
GOP senators face cross pressures unlike any previous impeachment trial, since the president will be at the top of the ticket in the November election and damaging revelations could depress GOP turnout in Senate races. With a two-thirds majority required for a conviction, Trump is all but sure to be acquitted.
Several Republicans who hadn’t publicly announced position said they would vote against witnesses. Senators Cory Gardner of Colorado and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, both of whom represent politically competitive states important in 2020 said they would vote against seeking additional evidence.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’s continuing to work on persuading a small group of Senate Republicans to vote with Democrats. The effort is aimed at drawing out potentially damaging revelations in testimony or documents about Trump’s conduct regarding Ukraine. Schumer points to polling that shows most voters support calling more witnesses.
“We think the truth can prevail and we can get the four votes,” Schumer said. “We’re still hopeful.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, said he was “getting more optimistic” that Republicans would be able to shut down Democrats on calling witnesses.
Bolton’s Disclosure
McConnell had to scramble after the bombshell disclosure that Bolton, who left the administration in September over policy disputes, wrote in a yet-to-be-published book that Trump linked aid for Ukraine to getting the country’s new president to announce a probe of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Bolton has said he would testify at the Senate trial if subpoenaed. Democrats propose calling Bolton and three other witnesses -- including Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney -- as well as addition emails and other documents to shed light on Trump’s motives.
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said Wednesday there are witnesses he’d like to call, including House impeachment manager Adam Schiff, Joe and Hunter Biden and the intelligence community whistle-blower who triggered the House inquiry. But he warned that would create extended legal fights that would keep the trial in session for weeks, if not months.
“If we get everybody we want we would be here for a very, very long time,” Sekulow said.
Senator Questions
The is finishing a two-day phase for senators to submit questions to House prosecutors and Trump’s defense, an opportunity Democrats have so far used to bolster their argument for more witnesses.
In one bit of drama, the chief justice declined to read a question submitted by GOP Senator Rand Paul, who was making a second attempt to get into the record the alleged name of the intelligence community whistle-blower at the center of the impeachment case.
When Paul’s written question was handed to Roberts, the chief justice read it silently and then said, “The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted.”
Roberts then moved on to a question by another senator. No one raised any audible objection.
In wrapping up their second and final full day of questions Thursday, members were clearly fatigued. The hours of piercing, provocative, orchestrated or repetitive questions carved a wide swath.
Schiff of California -- in an apparent last-ditch effort to appeal to Republicans who say witnesses would extend the trial for too long -- offered to limit testimony or depositions to one week. “Is that too much to ask in the name of fairness — that we follow the Clinton model, that we take one week?” he asked.
Democrats on Thursday repeatedly sought to rebut the argument made by law professor Alan Dershowitz, who asserted that a president’s power is expansive and he can’t be impeached for taking actions that are partly motivated by a desire to help his political prospects.
Schiff eagerly answered a friendly Democratic question on the implications.
“What we have seen over the last couple of days is a descent into constitutional madness,” said Schiff. “The only reason you make that argument is because you know your client is guilty and dead to rights. This is an argument made of desperation.”
--With assistance from Erik Wasson, Laura Davison and Billy House.
To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net;Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net;Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net
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