Because the questioning started on Wednesday, one more Republican, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, made it official: He wouldn’t vote for witnesses and paperwork. Mr. Gardner was by no means a number one candidate to buck his get together, however as a Republican up for re-election this fall in a Democratic-leaning state, he refused for days to commit a technique or one other.
That modified on Wednesday, when he mentioned the Senate needn’t contemplate something past the testimony already gathered within the Home’s impeachment inquiry.
“I don’t imagine we have to hear from an 18th witness,” Mr. Gardner mentioned. “I’ve approached each side of this grave constitutional responsibility with the respect and a spotlight required by regulation, and have reached this choice after fastidiously weighing the Home managers and protection arguments and intently reviewing the proof from the Home, which included properly over 100 hours of testimony from 17 witnesses.”
Requested why Republican senators addressed virtually 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 ceaselessly with out truly answering the query.”
It’s potential that would change because the as much as 16 hours of questioning continues, mentioned Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority chief.
“The explanation we directed a lot of our inquiries to the Home managers is as a result of they wanted the possibility 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 probability 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 identified it will likely be an uphill combat on witnesses and paperwork, as a result of the president and Mitch McConnell put large stress on these of us,” Mr. Schumer mentioned throughout a break within the impeachment trial.
His silver lining?
“We’ve got gained over the American individuals,” he mentioned. “Our Republican colleagues — no less than a few of them — understand that if they’re to reject witnesses and paperwork, they’re going towards not only a small group or not simply Democrats however towards 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 possible than not?” he mentioned. “Most likely no. However is it a good, good probability? Sure.”
Pushing again on President Trump’s protection staff’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 phase for “Entry Hollywood”: that “once 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 form of mentality that claims, ‘Underneath Article Two, I can do no matter I need, that I’m allowed to combat all subpoenas,’” Mr. Schiff mentioned.
However the courts have declared, Mr. Schiff mentioned of the president, “You’re not a king.”
The flexibility to ask questions — albeit solely in writing — introduced a brand new dynamic to the ground. Senators handed notes and gave the impression to be drafting questions on the fly, primarily based 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 staff, most Democrats requested pleasant questions of Home managers, and most Republicans requested pleasant questions of the president’s staff.
The attorneys…