Trump Trial Poised to Reach Predictable End in Senate: He Did It, So What?

by

House Democrats proved their case but it doesn’t matter–the Republican senator arguably most important for a vote to call new witnesses concluded on Thursday night. Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) composed a lengthy and remarkable Twitter thread explaining his rationale for backing the Mitch McConnell-led Senate’s effort to block new witnesses with first-hand knowledge of relevant events from testifying at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Some of what Alexander had to say was surprising considering the Trump defenses of “it was a perfect call,” and Democrats have whipped up yet another “hoax” and “con job” to kneecap his presidency. Alexander called this impeachment “partisan” but he didn’t call it a hoax, and he didn’t say the president acted appropriately by holding up military aid to leverage Ukraine into investigating the Bidens. He said that it was “proven” that this happened and that it was “inappropriate,” but not impeachable.

Let’s break down the Alexander rationale tweet by tweet, because–if the opposition’s response to his thread is representative of broad outrage–this vote may be remembered inside the Beltway for a long time.

1, 2: We don’t need to hear from new witnesses because the Democrats’ case has been proven, and it’s a case that doesn’t accuse the president of something impeachable. He went on TV and admitted he asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, and the memo of the July 25 call also shows this.