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In a surprise move on Saturday, the Senate voted to call witnesses in former President Trump’s impeachment trial. “Finally something unscripted,” Senator Mark Warner said after the 55-45 vote.
The vote included four Republicans considered swing votes toward impeachment: Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse. Unexpectedly, the fifth senator was Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, who changed his vote from “nay” to “yea” because he wants the defense to call witnesses.
The former president is facing a charge of incitement of insurrection over the deadly assault by pro-Trump rioters on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The decision to call witnesses throws the timeline for the trial up in the air. Many in Washington had expected it to wrap up today, but the decision could mean the trial drags on for days, if not weeks.
Democratic House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said Saturday that Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler should be called to testify.
Jaime Herrera Beutler came forward on Friday night and recalled that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told her about a phone call with Mr. Trump. According to Herrera Beutler, McCarthy told her that when he spoke to Mr. Trump that day and asked him to “publicly and forcefully” call off the Capitol assault, “the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol.”
“McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters,” Beutler’s statement said. “That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'”
A Senate staffer said Saturday morning that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an email to GOP colleagues he’ll vote to acquit Mr. Trump, according to a Senate staffer who was read the email by a Republican senator.
McConnell cited constitutional grounds for his reasoning. McConnell voted that the trial was unconstitutional before it began.
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