Some Senate Democrats Friday said that they did not support subpoenaing witnesses and extending former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial beyond Saturday, yet all 50 Democrats voted in favor of Rep. Jamie Raskin’s surprise call to summon a GOP witness and her notes regarding a call between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The Senate trial will now continue indefinitely instead of wrapping up Saturday with an acquittal.
A source familiar with a 9 a.m. conference call between Senate Democrats and House Democratic impeachment managers said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “argued hard against witnesses.”
But Schumer, the source said, “got rolled by his left flank and [impeachment] managers.”
Schumer’s spokesman denied the claim.
“That’s not true,” spokesman Justin Goodman told the Washington Examiner. Goodman pointed to interviews and public statements by the New York Democrat expressing support for witnesses if managers wanted to call them.
Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and the lead impeachment manager, opened the impeachment trial on Saturday by asking senators to vote to subpoena Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington state who disclosed a conversation between Trump and McCarthy that took place during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The vote to call witnesses passed 55-45 and included five Republicans.
The vote threw the trial into chaos, and rather than concluding Saturday, it could go on indefinitely. Senate Democratic leaders had hoped to wrap up the trial quickly in order to move key Democratic agenda items, including a major coronavirus relief package.
Republicans say that they want Trump’s defense lawyers to call their own witnesses, which will drag out the trial even further, perhaps for months.
“Schumer and Senate Dems got totally rolled this morning,” the source said. “Now, they don’t know what to do.”
The Senate recessed until early afternoon while the two parties try to work out an agreement on witnesses and how and when they should be deposed.
Senate Democrats as late as Friday expressed mixed feelings about witnesses.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who is among the most liberal members of the caucus, said on Saturday that she did not see the need to call witnesses because it would not convince any new Republicans to vote to convict. Hirono then voted for witnesses moments later.
Republicans said Democrats were caught off-guard by Raskin.
“Leftist Twitter got really upset last night that they were not calling witnesses, so House managers surprised Schumer and the Democrats by saying they wanted witnesses,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said Saturday.
