WASHINGTON — An effort by House managers to question witnesses in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump was resolved Saturday after lawmakers agreed to introduce as evidence past statements of a Republican congresswoman that Trump had brushed off pleas from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to persuade his supporters to stop the insurrection amid the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The lead House impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., asked the Senate to hear from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., who has said she heard McCarthy recount his dramatic conversation with Trump. Beutler has reported that, according to McCarthy, the president told the minority leader the rioters “are more upset about the election than you are.”
“Needless to say, this is an additional critical piece of corroborating evidence further confirming the charges before you as well as the president’s willful dereliction of duty and desertion of duty,” Raskin told senators.
The Senate vote was 55-45, with support from all Democrats and both independents, as well as Republicans Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mitt Romney of Utah. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also voted yes, switching his vote at the last minute.
Trump attorney Michael van der Veen objected to the request, saying that if Democrats get a witness, he would need to depose “at least over 100 witnesses. Not just one.”
Instead of setting up a deposition of Beutler, however, House managers and Trump’s attorneys agreed to allow her statements to reporters to be placed into the record and forgo taking her testimony. The Senate could hold a final vote as soon as Saturday afternoon on whether to convict Trump.
Tensions were high on the Senate floor during the short witness debate and vote. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, indicated he didn’t know if the chamber was voting to allow one witness or many. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., was visibly angry at one moment while talking to Romney, pointing at him over another senator.
The trial had been expected to wrap up on Saturday with a quick vote for acquittal. For an institution that is largely scripted — particularly on the Senate floor — the request for witnesses from House Democrats was a shock. While some Senate Democrats had been reluctant to drag out the impeachment trial, they quickly fell in line once Raskin made his request.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., “says he’s seen three of these [impeachment trials] and this is the craziest,” quipped Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.
In a sign of how soon the final vote was expected, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told his colleagues Saturday morning that he would vote to acquit, according to a source familiar with his announcement.
While Trump’s acquittal is viewed as all but certain, even if the timeline will be dragged out, he could face rebukes from several members of his own party, exposing the fissures he formed within the GOP during his presidency. One year ago, Romney became the first senator to ever vote to convict a president of the same party. This year, at least six Republican senators could join with Democrats to convict Trump, having broken with their party earlier this week to vote that the trial is constitutional.
Trump is the first president to be impeached twice and his trial is the first in American history of a former president. He was impeached last month on a charge of inciting the insurrection Jan. 6, when a violent pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol. The riot left five people dead, including a police officer.
New reports Friday evening prompted the calls from Democrats to hear from McCarthy. As the insurrection was unfolding, McCarthy called Trump to ask him to get his supporters to stop and got into a shouting match with Trump.
“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to a CNN report and confirmed by Herrera Beutler, who said she heard McCarthy recount the conversation.
In addition to the Herrera Beutler testimony, another remaining question is when Trump knew Vice President Mike Pence was in danger in the Capitol. Trump’s legal team said Friday that the president did not know he was at risk when the former president sent a tweet claiming Pence — who was presiding over the Electoral College certification — lacked the “courage” to block the counting of electoral votes about an hour into the riot.
That contradicts Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s claim that he told Trump in a phone call at the time that Pence had just been evacuated from the chamber, a sign his security detail sensed danger. Pence was evacuated just before 2:15 p.m. Trump sent his tweet at 2:24 p.m.
Tuberville, R-Ala., said he had been on the Senate floor when he was handed another senator’s cellphone. “It was the president. He said a few things. I said, ‘Mr President, they’ve taken the vice president out. They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go,’” Tuberville told reporters Friday. “So, probably the only guy in the world who hung up on the president of the United States.”
Despite the lingering questions, both Democrats and Republicans had appeared ready to move on. Democrats are eager to resume work on President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus bill and approving administration appointments. And Republicans, even those who have defended Trump, are looking to put the ugly and deadly insurrection behind them.
The six Republican senators who voted this week that the trial is constitutional — and considered the likeliest to support conviction — are Romney, Collins, Murkowski, Sasse, Cassidy and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
“I’ve got three legal pads of notes,” Cassidy said Friday evening ahead of his own deliberations on how he would vote. A photo circulated Friday of Cassidy holding a written argument explaining a vote for acquittal but the senator said he had a similarly prepared release for conviction, underscoring that he was undecided.
