Despite the fact that American soap operas are no longer very popular, President Donald Trump’s Senate trial to remove him from office is bringing in even less viewers. Just over four million people – in a country with a population of over 320 million – tuned in for the opening arguments on Jan. 22. In other words, Americans are yawning at the prospect of the Senate trial; they’ve been given little reason to care.
Therefore, I watched the latest trial – which took place on Jan. 30 – so that you don’t have to. Here is what I found:
Donald Trump is currently facing charges for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The main reason that brought about these trials is the allegation that he withheld military aid and a White House meeting to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his father was Vice President.
Courtesy: Buzzfeed News
The final verdict of the impeachment trial could extend until Wednesday, Feb. 5, officials said on Friday, Jan. 31, because senators were debating on whether or not the trial should include witnesses. After the Senate reconvened, the Republican Senator of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, upon hearing new evidence, has changed her predicted vote to a “no.” Murkowski said she ultimately concluded there would never be a fair trial in the Senate: “I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed.”
Now, the only two Republican senators who are expected to vote “yes” are the Republican Senator of Utah, Mitt Romney, and the Republican Senator of Maine, Susan Collins (no, not the woman that wrote Hunger Games).
As of 2:30 P.M. on Jan. 31, the Senate appears ready to reject bringing witnesses in for the trial. Republican Senator of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, who was considered a possible supporter of allowing testimony, voted himself against witnesses. He announced on Friday that he’s ready to end the trial even though he found Trump’s behavior “inappropriate” and said that he wanted to leave the president’s fate in the hands of voters during the upcoming election.
It seems that most of the American population is not in agreement with those voting “no” to bringing witnesses in; a Quinnipiac University poll that was released last week found that three quarters of voters supported calling witnesses in the trial. In response to this, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly said in a statement on Friday, “If you don’t respond to 75 percent of the American voters and have witnesses, it’s a job only half done.”
Courtesy: True Jersey
“I think there’s probably interest on both sides to bring this to a reasonable conclusion,” Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said. “The question is how do we land this airplane in a way that is fair to everybody concerned?”
As the impeachment trials come to a close, we are in the middle of preparing for the 2020 elections.
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