Senate Votes Not To Allow More Impeachment Witnesses; Trump Acquittal Expected

Washington, DC – The U.S. Senate voted late Friday afternoon to kill a motion by Senate Democrats that would have allowed additional witnesses and documents to be admitted into the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

President Trump could be acquitted as early as Saturday morning, according to Forbes.

Democrats boasted on Thursday that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t have the votes to stop the motion to allow the new evidence into the impeachment proceedings after U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (D-Massachusetts) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) said they did not plan to vote along party lines.

But two other critical swing votes – U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) – got off the fence and said they would vote against the Democrats’ proposal, prompting Republicans to call for a vote before the end of business on Jan. 31, Forbes reported.

The vote was 51 to 49 against the motion to call additional witnesses, NBC News reported.

“There is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense,” Alexander explained late Thursday. “I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything.”

On Friday, Murkowski simply said after announcing her decision that she had “to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed,” according to Forbes.

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Although the vote ending the debate over calling new witnesses brings the trial to an end in most respects and senators could vote immediately on whether to convict the President, The Guardian reported that McConnell and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) had agreed to hold the final vote on Feb. 5, the day after the State of the Union address.

Protesters on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol expressed their anger and frustration in a demonstration on Friday evening shouting “shame, shame, shame” and President Trump’s supporters celebrated.