House impeachment managers argue that months of Trump’s rhetoric falsely claiming election fraud culminated in the insurrection
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell walked his conference through the impeachment timeline today during the private GOP lunch. He laid out that it was still possible to finish this trial by Saturday evening, according to GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer.
Finishing by Saturday would mean they would do senators’ questions, closing arguments and the final vote that day – and push back doing senators’ final speeches until later. The ultimate vote has not been decided yet, in part because the question about whether Democrats will seek witnesses is still not fully resolved, but all signs point to the trial ending this weekend.
Unlike the 2020 trial, when many senators from both parties took to the floor and gave floor speeches before the final conviction vote, Cramer also indicated that fewer GOP senators would speak this time – a sentiment echoed by many other of his colleagues.
The reason, Republican senators say, is that not as many GOP senators want to publicly defend Trump. Moreover, senators from both parties are eager to get home for next week’s Presidents Day recess.
“I think there is a lot of incentive for that,” Cramer said about trying to end Saturday.
Cramer told reporters that he believed that many of the Senate speeches that can bog down the end of an impeachment trial wouldn’t come until after the trial concluded and after a vote on conviction had already happened. But the timing on floor speeches hasn’t been decided by the leaders yet.
“We have talked about that in the shop. If we were to give speeches, it would be after the trial is over,” Cramer said. “I expect we would have the vote as soon as we can, move along… then if senators want to take their opportunities, they probably will.”
Cramer said he will likely put something in the record, but he was not sure if he would formally speak.
