Retiring GOP Senator Lamar Alexander has announced he will not vote to have witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial.
Alexander, who is retiring, had been open to witnesses when the trial began and Dems were hopeful they could get him to join 4 other GOP Senators to help them force witnesses.
Democrats failed to convince Alexander and were only successful in getting two GOP Senators to join them.
Mitt Romney has been anti-Trump for much of his tenure in the Senate and Susan Collins is fighting to keep her seat in a blue state.
According to Town Hall:
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced on Thursday night that he is not in favor of calling for additional witnesses and testimony in President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
“I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the U.S. Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense,” Alexander said. “There is no need for more evidence to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine.”
There is no need for more evidence to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine. 2/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
There is no need to consider further the frivolous second article of impeachment that would remove the president for asserting his constitutional prerogative to protect confidential conversations with his close advisers. 4/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
When elected officials inappropriately interfere with such investigations, it undermines the principle of equal justice under the law. 6/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. 8/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
The Senate has spent nine long days considering this “mountain” of evidence, the arguments of the House managers and the president’s lawyers, their answers to senators’ questions and the House record. 10/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
The framers believed that there should never, ever be a partisan impeachment. That is why the Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate for conviction. Yet not one House Republican voted for these articles. 12/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
It would create the weapon of perpetual impeachment to be used against future presidents whenever the House of Representatives is of a different political party. 14/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
Our founding documents provide for duly elected presidents who serve with “the consent of the governed,” not at the pleasure of the United States Congress.
Let the people decide.
15/15
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (@SenAlexander) January 31, 2020
Democrats were hopeful that they could get four Senators but Alexander would have only made three with Lisa Murkowski still undecided on witnesses as well.
