re: TRUMP FULLY ACQUITTED

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He is now telling us what he thinks Trump's lawyers will say.

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The lead manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., charged that Trump abused the power of his office by withholding $391 million in vital military aid for Ukraine in a scheme to cheat in the 2020 election by pressuring the country to investigate his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

But Schiff warned that the second accusation of obstruction of Congress will echo beyond impeachment – if Trump isn’t convicted and removed from office – because the president defied all subpoenas during the House inquiry.

“In the history of the republic, no president ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry,” Schiff said. “Ukraine will survive and so will we, but that will be an unending injury to this country because the balance of power that our founders set out will never be the same.”

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Votes on witnesses are expected after the Trump team’s presentation and then up to 16 hours of written questions posed by senators to both sides. But no Republicans stepped forward to support subpoenas after the arguments from the seven House prosecutors, who are called managers.

“I’m not going to be requesting any additional witnesses, especially when they say the evidence is overwhelming and the facts are undisputed,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “In the world I've grew up in, that means there's no need for additional witnesses.”

Rather than take more time in the trial to call witnesses, Republicans turned their attention to acquitting Trump and moving on.

“I personally am in favor of a motion to acquit or convict," said Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. "I think the former is what’s going to happen because the case has not been made."

– Bart Jansen

GOP senators slam Schiff speech

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., made an impassioned plea to Republicans to put country over party and to think about their own values rather than politics, but some of his points drew mixed reactions from the senators.

When Schiff referenced a CBS report that a Trump confidante had told senators not vote against him or "your head would be on a pike," Republican senators audibly voiced their disapproval, one of the first times in the trial.

"That's not true," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, could be heard saying, along with several other senators.

She shook her head in disapproval.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., laughed at the remark, pulled out his fidget spinner, and started twirling it.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., denied that Republicans had been told by Trump that their heads would be on a pike.

“That is completely, totally false,” Lankford said. “All of us were shaking our heads.”

Lankford said it was an example of Schiff weaving facts and fiction together for his narrative of the case.

“To cap it off that all these Republicans live in fear of the president, that their head will be on a pike,” Lankford said. “Not true.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told reporters that Schiff "lost me there" when he brought up the pike comment, according to National Public Radio. But she said she did not mean that Schiff had lost her vote on whether to call witnesses or on the verdict. She said she is waiting to hear Trump's defense team before making her decisions.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, said Schiff “could have used a different metaphor.” He said all his friends and colleagues across the aisle said it was not true, so “I believe them."

LINK

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When Schiff referenced a CBS report that a Trump confidante had told senators not vote against him or "your head would be on a pike," Republican senators audibly voiced their disapproval, one of the first times in the trial.

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