Chief CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin summed up the Senate vote to reject witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Trump by saying, “Trump won.”
“Trump won,” Toobin told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I mean, you know, he’s gonna win this trial. He won on the issue of witnesses.”
“He’s going to get acquitted, and that’s how history will remember what went on here,” Toobin added.
Republicans defeated the Democratic effort to call witnesses in the impeachment trial by a 51-49 vote on Friday night. Democrats had been hoping to bring in former national security adviser John Bolton to provide more evidence in the trial, and Toobin implied that the history books will not reflect kindly on the GOP’s successful push to deny Bolton the opportunity.
“I think history will also record that there are at last one and perhaps other, pivotal, pivotal witnesses who were available to the … Senate, to talk about the precise issue that is the subject of this impeachment trial, and the Senate decided not to hear from them,” Toobin said.
CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after a key vote for witnesses fails in the Senate: “Trump won. He’s going to win this trial. He won on the issue of witnesses, he’s going to get acquitted — and that’s how history will remember what went on here” pic.twitter.com/yZ24GPUpCJ
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 31, 2020
The vote on whether to acquit Trump is likely to take place Wednesday. Senate Democrats do not currently have the two-thirds majority they need to remove Trump from office.
