“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country,” Trump said in a statement following the vote.
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When asked by TIME after the vote how he felt about seven Republican senators voting to convict Trump - six more than in the previous impeachment trial - Trump’s attorney Bruce Castor Jr. Ted Cruz said Saturday, hours before the final vote. “Everybody knows the outcome of this proceeding, which is that President Trump is going to be acquitted,” Texas Sen. On Tuesday, as the trial started, 44 Republicans had already voted that the entire trial was unconstitutional, rendering it exceedingly unlikely that the House managers would get the 17 Republican votes they needed. Ron Johnson became visibly upset with Romney after the Utah senator voted to call a witness, pointing angrily at him and was heard saying in part, “Blame you.” Ultimately both parties came to a rapid agreement to enter Herrera Beutler’s statement into evidence without further drawing out the process.īy then, it was already clear that no evidence was going to change enough Republican minds to convict. Perhaps at no point was that impulse more evident than on Saturday, when the House impeachment team made the surprise announcement from the Senate floor that they wanted to subpoena Herrera Beutler.Ī potential fight over witnesses that could have prolonged the Senate trial hung in the balance, and rage erupted on the Senate floor. ‘He can do this again’įrom the start, there was clear eagerness on both sides of the aisle to get through this impeachment quickly. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump allegedly told McCarthy. Jaime Herrera Beutler released a statement confirming the details of her conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in which he told her he’d spoken to Trump during the attack, pleading with him to call the rioters off. His lawyer said that Trump at no point had been alerted to the danger Pence was in, directly contradicting the public statements of Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who said he relayed to the President that Pence had been evacuated from the Senate chamber in a phone call. Their defense presentation lasted just under three hours, after which the Senate moved on to a question and answer period.