WASHINGTON (CN) — After calling for witness testimony in a 55-45 vote, Senate Democrats demurred and instead moved to present closing arguments in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
Republicans Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sided with Democrats to bring witnesses to the Senate chamber virtually, though Graham changed his “no” vote after an initial roll call.
A two-thirds majority is needed to convict Trump, a one-time television host turned political neophyte charged with incitement of insurrection just a week after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. The attack began after Trump delivered a fiery speech riddled with falsehoods about the 2020 election to a crowd of thousands who for weeks had planned to assemble there at his invitation.
Raskin called for witness testimony before the vote. In a public statement and as reported first by the New York Times, Representative Jamie Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington, had knowledge of Trump telling House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy during the siege that the rioters were “more upset about the election than you are.”
“When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol,” the congresswoman said in a statement.
The FBI has said there is no indication antifa activists were involved in the attack.
After about 45 minutes, both sides came back to the chamber where they announced they’d agreed to entering Beutler’s statement into the record as evidence in lieu of calling witnesses, of which, Republicans had reportedly more than 300.
Raskin in his closing remarks said to senate jurors: “I have no doubt you have noticed, despite the various propaganda reels, Trump’s lawyers have said nothing to overcome evidence of Trump’s conduct much less have they brought their client forward to tell his side of the story.”
Trump had his chance to appear but as he did in his first impeachment, refused to testify.
The trial again was delayed Saturday as both sides closed. While Raskin again broadly outlined House impeachment managers’ two-day evidentiary presentation, van der Veen objected to statements from another House manager David Cicilline who presented a tweet published last night from Josh Dawsey.
Dawsey reported Vice President Mike Pence’s team didn’t agree with the Trump counsel assertion that the 45th president was concerned with Pence’s safety. As Cicilline finished a presentation focused on Trump’s incitement, Senator Mike Lee again objected to House impeachment managers’ characterization of a phone call Trump mistakenly placed to the Utah Republican — when he had meant to call Senator Tommy Tuberville.
The Senate briefly went into a quorum call, then Leahy said the evidentiary record had been closed, referencing Cicilline’s recitation of a 20-hour-old tweet.
“S. Res. 47 describes the scope of those things not admitted to evidence as those referenced in trial,” he said. “New evidence is not permitted in closing argument. References to such new evidence will be stricken.”
On Saturday, Raskin said: “Congresswoman Beutler further stated that she hopes other witnesses to this part of the story, other ‘patriots’ as she put it, would come forward and if that happens, we would seek the opportunity to take their depositions via Zoom.”
Trump counsel Michael van der Veen, visibly angered by this idea, said if the trial should have witnesses: “I’m going to need at least over 100 depositions, not just one.”