Impeachment trial: Collins breaks with GOP on witnesses but Alexander says he will vote no

Senator Lamar Alexander announced Thursday night he will not join Democrats in calling for witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, making it unlikely that there will be the simple majority needed to call witnesses.

“I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense,” Alexander said in a statement.

Part 1

Part 2

Republican Senator Susan Collins said she will vote for witnesses.

Two other GOP senators remain undecided: Senators Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski. Both indicated they would not announce their decisions until Friday morning, although Romney’s office said late Thursday that he has , he has said “repeatedly” he wants to hear from Bolton and “thus will vote for the motion tomorrow.”

Four GOP senators would have to join all the Democrats to ensure the testimony of witnesses. Even if both Murkowski and Romney were to join with Democrats, it would likely place the Democrats at a 50-50 stalemate.

Even if Roberts broke the tie to allow for witnesses, he could still be overruled by a majority of the Senate. Without witnesses, the impeachment trial is likely to wrap late Friday or Saturday.

Senators concluded three days of questioning on Thursday, the ninth day of the impeachment trial. Earlier Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts blocked Senator Rand Paul’s question, which is believed to have included the whistleblower’s name.

Senators peppered both sides with submitted questions about the president’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals and the legal theories underpinning the two articles of impeachment against him. The president’s attorneys argued the president’s conduct does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as Democrats hammered home their insistence that the Senate call new witnesses, particularly former national security adviser John Bolton.

Bolton reportedly alleges in a manuscript of his book that the president tied hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine’s willingness to announce investigations, an accusation the president and his team deny.