Requested why Republican senators addressed nearly all of their inquiries to President Trump’s attorneys and Democratic senators to the Home managers, Senator Mike Braun, Republican of Indiana, had a easy reply: “You need to management the dynamic,” he mentioned.
“It’s extremely unlikely that you simply’ll see both facet asking questions of the opposite facet,” added Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina. “The reality of the matter is, you don’t need to give somebody a chance simply to drone on perpetually with out truly answering the query.”
It’s attainable that might change because the as much as 16 hours of questioning continues, mentioned Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority chief.
“The rationale we directed a lot of our inquiries to the Home managers is as a result of they wanted the prospect to rebut the false arguments, the fallacious reasoning, the half-truths and even no truths that the three days of the president’s counsel made,” he mentioned. “This was their first likelihood to do it.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority chief, acknowledged on Wednesday that successful sufficient Republican votes to permit witnesses to testify was unlikely.
“We’ve all the time recognized it will likely be an uphill struggle on witnesses and paperwork, as a result of the president and Mitch McConnell put large stress on these people,” Mr. Schumer mentioned throughout a break within the impeachment trial.
His silver lining?
“We have now received over the American folks,” he mentioned. “Our Republican colleagues — at the least a few of them — understand that if they’re to reject witnesses and paperwork, they’re going in opposition to not only a small group or not simply Democrats however in opposition to the entire grain of America. And so they know that they might be held accountable to that.”
He maintained he held out hope that sufficient Republican senators would agree.
“Is it extra probably than not?” he mentioned. “In all probability no. However is it a good, good likelihood? Sure.”
Pushing again on President Trump’s protection group’s expansive view of his presidential prerogatives, Consultant Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Home Intelligence Committee and the lead impeachment supervisor, accused Mr. Trump of being “a president who identifies the state as being himself.”
His remarks got here after Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, requested a query citing Mr. Trump’s previous feedback declaring his personal broad energy, together with the infamous vulgar comment he made earlier than he was elected whereas filming a section for “Entry Hollywood”: that “while you’re a star, they allow you to do it. You are able to do something.”
Alan Dershowitz, one of many president’s attorneys, had argued earlier within the afternoon that any motion taken by the president to assist his personal re-election is, by definition, within the public curiosity.
Mr. Schiff used the query from Ms. Harris to forcefully push again.
“It’s the type of mentality that claims, ‘Below Article Two, I can do no matter I need, that I’m allowed to struggle all subpoenas,’” Mr. Schiff mentioned.
However the courts have declared, Mr. Schiff mentioned of the president, “You’re not a king.”
The power to ask questions — albeit solely in writing — introduced a brand new dynamic to the ground. Senators handed notes and seemed to be drafting questions on the fly, based mostly off earlier questions and the responses from President Trump’s attorneys and the Democratic Home managers.
In an indication that every facet was rallying its personal group, most Democrats requested pleasant questions of Home managers, and most Republicans requested pleasant questions of the president’s group.
The attorneys shuffled papers, continuously whispered and held up handwritten notice playing cards signaling one another when his or her talking time was nearly up. (Republicans started using them to alert Mr. Trump’s attorneys how a lot time that they had left, and Democrats picked up the follow.)
Senators reacted brazenly, if quietly, to what was being mentioned.
A query by Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority chief, asking the Home managers to “please reply to the reply that was simply given by the president’s counsel” prompted some laughter from the Democratic facet of the aisle.
When Alan Dershowitz, one in every of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, argued that every public official believes his or her election is within the public curiosity, Senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Martha McSally of Arizona, all Republicans, exchanged seems to be and chuckled.
And when Consultant Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead Home supervisor, requested Republicans to think about how they might react if it had been former…