Adam Schiff gave his closing argument and all but fell flat as most Senators have already decided how they will vote on President Trump impeachment.
The Dems in no way have 67 votes to remove President Trump, in fact, they may lose a few Democrat Senators who are rumored to be seriously considering voting to acquit.
Doug Jones and Joe Manchin are two votes that the Democrats cannot afford to lose. In Schiff’s closing arguments he all but begged at least one GOP Senator to vote to convict in his desperate hopes to avoid a partisan impeachment.
Sadly, Schiff forgot the House did show some bipartisanship in voting against the articles when a few Dem Reps broke with Pelosi and Schiff.
It looks like the same thing is happening in the Senate, so Joe Manchin is trying to find a compromise – a toothless censure vote.
President Trump won’t go for it, so Manchin and the rest will have to take a tough vote.
Fox News reported that Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, urged his colleagues to formally censure Trump — saying that while the president’s dealings with both Ukraine and Congress were “simply wrong,” he was “struggling” with whether to vote to convict and remove him from office.
At the same time, he also condemned the GOP-controlled Senate for failing to call additional witnesses in the impeachment trial, saying “history will judge the Senate harshly” for failing its constitutional duty to “protect our democracy.”
“I see no path to the 67 votes [requried to convict and remove] President Trump,” Manchin, who represents a deeply pro-Trump state, asserted. “However, I do believe a bipartisan majority of this body would vote to censure this president.”
A censure resolution has no practical effect and serves as a legislative rebuke to the sitting president.
Saying the decision of whether to remove President Trump from office was a “grave” matter that has “weighed heavily” on him, Manchin noted he has “listened carefully” to both sides of the issue — and that he remains undecided.
