BREAKING: Senate Votes to Call Witnesses in Impeachment Trial
House managers plan to call a GOP Congresswoman who took notes of McCarthy's phone call with Trump
The Senate voted on Saturday morning to support calling witnesses in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. 5 Republicans, including ardent Trump ally Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, joined all 50 Democrats in calling for witnesses in the historic trial.
Lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said that he would like to call Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler to testify as a witness on Zoom. The Republican Congresswoman from Washington State said she took extensive notes of a phone call that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had with President Trump on the day of the Capitol riot. CNN reported on Friday that the Leader McCarthy begged Trump to call off the insurrection. The President refused and told McCarthy that the rioters cared more about the election than he did, to which the Minority Leader responded: “Who the f*** do you think you are talking to?”
Debate over witnesses lasted about 30 minutes. Lead Manager Raskin cited CNN’s Friday night report in his argument for witnesses, while Trump attorney Michael van der Veen said that any witnesses should be called to testify in person, not over a Zoom conference. He also said that there should be more than one witness. "If they want to have witnesses, I'm going to need at least 100 depositions, not just one," he said.
The five Republicans who joined Democrats in calling for witnesses are:
Sen. Susan Collins (ME)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC)
Sen. Ben Sasse (NE)
Sen. Mitt Romney (UT)
There seemed to be some confusion on the Senate floor as to what exactly Senators were voting on. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) asked the clerk to clarify what was being voted on, but President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who is presiding over the trial, said that there will be no debate while the vote is taking place.
Senate leaders, who expected the trial to be over on Saturday, also seemed blindsided by the vote. The Senate was scheduled to have a weeklong recess next week, but Senators will now very likely be staying in Washington a little longer than expected. Leaders began privately discussing their strategy for the next phase of the trial immediately after the vote on witnesses.
While it remains to be seen exactly how many witnesses will be called, this new development is a blow to the Biden Administration. Like Senate leaders, they wanted the trial to be over as quickly as possible so that the country can get back to business as usual, from properly distributing the COVID-19 vaccine and delivering economic relief for struggling families and businesses. A protracted impeachment trial could further delay the new President’s cabinet nominations, legislative agenda and other top priorities.