Report: Mitch McConnell Plans Swift End to Trump’s Senate Trial If Friday Witness Vote Fails
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will move to swiftly wrap up the Senate trial of President Donald Trump for abuse fo power and obstruction of Congress charges if a planned Friday vote to allow witness testimony fails.
That’s according to reporting from CNN, which cites the number-two ranking GOP Senator, South Dakota’s John Thune.
“In the end it’s going to be up to the Leader [McConnell], but my view would be at that point you would want to start bringing this thing to a conclusion,” Thune told CNN on Wednesday. “I’m not sure there would be any value or any point in keeping it going.”
A potential vote on allowing additional witness testimony and documents has become a seminal question in the Senate trial, after new bombshell allegations from Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, currently out on bail facing campaign finance charges, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton came to light after the House impeachment inquiry was complete. Both Parnas and Bolton have directly implicated Trump in pushing for a quid pro quo that linked the release of Congressional approved military aid to an announcement by Ukrainian officials that they would be opening a corruption investigation into the president’s potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden.
A potential Senate vote to allow witnesses has been the subject of intense speculation and vote-counting since the trial began. On Tuesday, McConnell reportedly told his Republican colleagues that he could not say with certainty that he had the 50 votes necessary to defeat the procedural move to subpoena witnesses and admit additional evidence.
Moderate Republican Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins are currently considered very likely to join with the 47 Democrats to vote in favor of witnesses. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski also remains a possible yes vote. But heading into another day of Q&A hearings on Thursday, it’s not clear where the 51st and deciding vote in favor of witnesses would come from. Two other possible names floated as possible Senate GOP defections, Colorado’s Cory Gardner and Ohio’s Rob Portman, both came out against new witness testimony on Wednesday.
Per the Senate trial’s organizing resolution, McConnell could attempt to move straight to closing arguments and then a final vote on the two articles of impeachment after a final phase that allows for additional procedural motions, each of which can be debated for up to two hours.
“If that vote were defeated on Friday, you’d be through the part where the organizing resolution governs what happens, and then it’s pretty much open motions,” Thune noted to CNN. “The Leader would have the right of first recognition, and if he wanted to move to closing arguments I suspect we’d do that.”
As a result, Trump’s expected acquittal could happen as soon as Friday or Saturday if Senate Republicans can muster enough votes to block hearing from additional witness testimony.
