Trump’s Plea For Dismissal On Impeachment Trial Lacks Votes

Published on January 14, 2020

Senator Roy Blunt informed reporters on Monday that Senate Republicans don’t have the votes to dismiss the impeachment trial against President Trump, who keeps pushing the motion of an “outright dismissal” over Twitter.

After a leadership meeting, Blunt told reporters “I think our members generally are not interested in a motion to dismiss. Certainly, there aren’t 51 votes for a motion to dismiss.” Republicans have been notifying the public that they will not ignore the two articles of impeachment against the President.

Trump revived talk of a dismissal over the weekend by tweeting:

“Many believe that by the Senate giving credence to a trial based on the no evidence, no crime, read the transcripts, ‘no pressure’ Impeachment Hoax, rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have. I agree.”

A Senate Divided?

There are sides to this, however. As explained before, much to the President’s dismay, the senate would require 51 votes to dismiss the articles of Impeachment. Nevertheless, since Democrats would not support the efforts, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could afford to lose a minimum of two GOP senators and still dismiss the impeachment trial articles.

Multiple Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins from Maine and Rob Portman from Ohio, have expressed no desire to support a motion to dismiss by arguing that Trump’s legal team and House Impeachment trial managers should be able to make their case.

Witnesses

If anything, Collins has other plans. She is attempting to convince some Republicans, such as Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to make sure the trial includes regulations that eventually consider voting to call for witnesses. Collins said, “my position is that there should be a vote on whether or not witnesses should be called.” And the senator does seem to be getting support, with Romney saying that that he wants to hear from John Bolton, the former national security adviser of the White House. Mainly because he may be considered suspect regarding the alternative foreign policy towards the Ukraine guided by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

It Always Goes Back To Clinton.

This isn’t the first time the American public has ever encounter this. Back in the 1990s, Clinton Impeachment’s trial rules had a motion to dismiss around it. The motion was unsuccessful despite the opening arguments and motivation of the senators. As per this case, Republicans are still designing the rules resolution for the Trump trial, but a few senators of the GOP have implied that they will not be adding a motion to dismiss into said solution. Regardless, that would not prevent a senator to call on forth a motion to dismiss during the trial. It is as explained by an adviser to McConnell, Texas Senator John Cornyn, when he told The Hill “if 51 senators wanted to have that vote, we could have it at some point. I don’t believe it’s going to be baked into the underlying resolution.”

Meeting Halfway

Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will be only the third one in American history, which is just upon a divided nation starting an election year. Although Trump was impeached in a vivid movement inspired by the Democrats last month, Speaker Nancy Pelosi hasn’t set a time for the House vote that will launch the Senate action. The fact of the matter is that Trump’s impeachment around abuse of power (pushing Ukraine to investigate candidate opponent Joe Biden) and obstruction of Congress in the probe. It seems as if both parties are pushing for testimony, as Democrats are urging to consider it. They are argue that brand new information has been brought to their attention during Pelosi’s monthlong delay in transmitting the charges.

Related: Could Our President Be Legally ‘Impeached?’ Here’s the Law.

Argenis Ovalles is an Editorial Intern at Grit Daily. He currently writes at Vocal Media and Theater Pizzazz.

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