Friday’s session might be definitive, almost certainly capped by a vote on whether or not to listen to new witnesses like the previous nationwide s
Friday’s session might be definitive, almost certainly capped by a vote on whether or not to listen to new witnesses like the previous nationwide safety adviser John R. Bolton and take into account new proof. However after that vote, which Republicans are assured can be rejected, issues in President Trump’s impeachment trial may change into somewhat messy. Nicholas Fandos, a congressional correspondent for The New York Occasions, walked me by means of what to anticipate.
The trial will resume at 1 p.m., however with a brand new form: There can be 4 hours of debate, cut up between the Home managers and Mr. Trump’s attorneys, on the query of witnesses. We’ll almost certainly hear Adam Schiff speaking yet another time about why they should hear from Mr. Bolton and others. The president’s attorneys will say that should you go down that path, it can open up a Pandora’s field and maintain the trial going for weeks extra.
After the conclusion of that debate, one thing uncommon may occur: Senators may transfer into a personal deliberation, the place they shut the doorways, kick reporters out of the Senate press gallery and switch off cameras. However that’s unlikely, largely as a result of we already understand how Republicans will vote.
Then, within the late afternoon or early night, the vote on whether or not to contemplate witnesses and paperwork will happen. Bear in mind: It’s a vote about whether or not they even wish to permit the Senate to contemplate calling witnesses, not a vote on the witnesses themselves. If the vote fails, the trial is, for all intents and functions, heading towards a conclusion.
If the Senate does vote to contemplate witnesses — an enormous “if,” contemplating we just about know the votes — then we’ll be in an unsure interval the place the 2 authorized groups can supply motions on particular folks and paperwork, and each will get a vote. It will open up a free-for-all through which Democrats may maintain demanding votes. The president’s attorneys may demand votes, too, on witnesses like Hunter Biden.
No matter how the vote seems, Senate leaders will seemingly break to debate what to do subsequent.
The dinnertime hours might be when issues get actually messy. The subsequent massive step, assuming the witness movement fails, is a vote on every of the impeachment articles. However there are a number of excessive jinks Senate Democrats may pull between the witness vote and the decision, together with forcing a bunch of procedural votes. Nevertheless it’s exhausting to say precisely what they might do, as a result of they’re nonetheless figuring that out. The session may go deep into the night time.
If Republicans had their alternative, they might vote to acquit Mr. Trump by the tip of the night time. However that’s going to be exhausting: Senators might want, as they did through the Clinton impeachment, to take some period of time to deliberate about remaining votes, that are anticipated by Monday.
Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, is the uncommon Senate Republican — really the lone Senate Republican till late Thursday — vocally pushing for witnesses to be known as in President Trump’s impeachment trial. He’s additionally the one Senate Republican who’s seen as a doable vote to convict the president, an added distinction since Mr. Trump bought each Home Republican to fall in line.
All of which locations upon Mr. Romney a degree of curiosity that goes past the quasi-celebrity therapy he already receives because the final pre-Trump standard-bearer of a Republican Occasion that feels about 80 years faraway from the get together that nominated him eight years in the past.
Not less than amongst Democrats currently, Mr. Romney has additionally change into a magnet for nostalgia. “He’s a good, honorable man,” former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. mentioned in a latest interview. Mr. Biden conceded that it was unlikely that he can be working for president proper now if it have been Mr. Romney looking for re-election, not Mr. Trump.
“I believe that is Senator Romney’s second to shine,” mentioned Senator Amy Klobuchar, one other Democratic presidential candidate who was in Washington for the impeachment trial. She was referring particularly to Mr. Romney’s assist for calling witnesses.
“Hopefully he can carry some folks with him,” Ms. Klobuchar mentioned. She meant Republicans, a prospect that was trying increasingly unlikely. By most indications, Mr. Romney’s potential to recruit Republican colleagues to his place has been minimal at finest. After the Senate adjourned Thursday night time, Senator Susan Collins of Maine mentioned she would vote in favor of contemplating extra witnesses and paperwork. However Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee introduced he would vote no.
The president has not been shy about heaping scorn upon Mr. Romney. It has created a scenario through which a few of Mr. Romney’s colleagues have taken their very own pictures at him, little doubt as a strategy to show…