Senate on track for final impeachment vote Saturday
The Senate is poised to vote Saturday on whether to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol last month in the culmination of the first impeachment trial of an ex-president in US history.
The final vote is not set, but the Senate is racing toward concluding the trial in five days — unless the Democratic impeachment managers seek witnesses. That could extend the trial beyond Saturday, although senators in both parties are not expecting any witnesses to be called.
If there are no witnesses, the impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers will make closing arguments of up to two hours each before the Senate will move to a final vote, which could be held at 3 p.m. ET, though that’s not finalized. It’s still not clear whether senators will seek to make speeches to explain their votes once the legal teams conclude.
The outcome of the final vote was already telegraphed earlier in the week, when the Senate voted 56-44 that the impeachment trial was constitutional. The GOP senators who voted the trial of a former president was unconstitutional said that was what would determine their final vote, leaving the Senate well short of the two-thirds — or 17 GOP senators who would have to join all 50 Democrats — needed for conviction.
The six Republicans who voted the trial was constitutional are the GOP senators who have left open the possibility they could vote that Trump is guilty, after 10 House Republicans joined Democrats to impeach Trump in the House last month. Several of those Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — pressed Trump’s lawyers during the Senate’s question-and-answer session Friday over the actions Trump took when he learned about the riots unfolding and tweeted that then-Vice President Mike Pence was lacking courage while he was being evacuated from the Senate.
The House managers have argued throughout the trial that Trump should be convicted and barred from holding future office because he was responsible for the rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6 and endangered the lives of lawmakers and Pence. They’ve made the case that Trump incited the rioters through months of false claims that the election was being stolen from him, then failed to take any action to stop the violence or condemn the rioters afterward.
The defense team offered its rebuttal on Friday in a brief presentation, in which they sought to equate Trump’s rhetoric with that of Democrats, arguing that political rhetoric is protected by the First Amendment and Trump’s language did not incite a riot that was pre-planned.
The witnesses question could get resolved soon after the Senate gavels back into session at 10 a.m. ET Saturday morning. The managers have repeatedly declined to say whether they will seek witnesses, though most senators don’t expect them to do so. “No comment. No comment,” lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said as he left the Capitol Friday evening.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also declined comment on his way out of the Capitol on Friday.
“It’s up to the managers,” Schumer said. “We defer to them.”
