Murkowski is a No on Witnesses for Senate Trial, Called House Impeachment Rushed

The impeachment trial in the Senate could wrap up today. The Senate vote appears that it will be set to a 51 to 49 vote against calling witnesses. Thursday Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) said they favored calling witnesses, while Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) decided that he did not. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was the last of the swing Republicans to announce her decision today.

“The House chose to send articles of impeachment that are rushed and flawed. I carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents, to cure the shortcomings of its process, but ultimately decided that I will vote against considering motions to subpoena,” Murkowski said in a statement.

If things go well for President Trump and the Republicans this could mark the end of the impeachment attempt by the Democrats, which could set the stage for President Trump to focus on his re-election and agenda with all cylinders firing.

The House and Senate Democrats knew this was an uphill battle, but even a loss is a partial win for them as they have been able to use time and resources to slow down the Trump administration from enacting his campaign promises and policies, just like the Mueller investigation, which ultimately vindicated President Trump did as well.

Even though Murkowski is a moderate Republican, an Al Jazeera columnist took to Twitter to lambaste her for not voting to allow witnesses. Medhi Hasan calls her a “right-wing, partisan, cowardly joke” as you can see in the tweet below. I’m sure many other dissenters of the Trump agenda will have similar thoughts. Will Murkowski get praise from Trump and the Republicans for toeing the line though? That is yet to be seen. See tweet below:

Murkowski is a right-wing, partisan, cowardly joke but yet again so much of the DC press corps fell for her ‘moderate’ shtick in the run-up to this very predictable and inevitable statement from her: https://t.co/RqLXe6OqM6

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 31, 2020