House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters the president will not be exonerated if the Senate acquits him by this weekend because the trial would not be a fair one.
“He will not be acquitted,” Pelosi said Thursday. “You cannot be acquitted if you don’t have a trial. And you don’t have a trial if you don’t have witnesses and documentation.”
The Senate is poised to vote Friday on whether to end the trial and vote on two impeachment charges or continue the proceedings by calling new witnesses and seeking documents from the Trump administration.
The Senate Republican majority is growing confident they can defeat a motion to call new witnesses, but it might be close.
The party controls 53 votes, and at least three Republicans are considering a vote to call witnesses.
A 50-50 vote could result — in which case, the motion would fail and no new witnesses would be called.
Pelosi said in the event of a tie, the Senate should let Chief Justice John Roberts, a GOP high court appointee, be the tie breaker.
That’s unlikely.
Senate Republicans blocked a motion early in the trial that would have authorized Roberts to subpoena witnesses and documents.
“Republican-appointed in a Republican majority court,” Pelosi said. “I would think that they would have confidence in the chief justice of the United States. That’s his — really his title. And that’s interesting to me, that they’re afraid of breaking a tie with a chief justice of the United States.”
Senate Republicans want to avoid a tie vote.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, met privately Wednesday morning with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a key Republican swing vote.
Murkowski has expressed interest in hearing witness testimony but is undecided on how she will ultimately vote.
Trump’s acquittal is all but certain. It takes 67 votes to convict the president on either of two impeachment articles.
