While it appears Mitt Romney and Susan Collins have agreed to vote for witnesses in the Senate Impeachment Trial, Lamar Alexander has decided to vote against calling 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 U.S. Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense,” he said on Twitter.
Alexander suggested the actions of the president were “inappropriate” but not impeachable.
“It was inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation,” Alexander said.
“When elected officials inappropriately interfere with such investigations, it undermines the principle of equal justice under the law. But the Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year’s ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate.“
Read Alexander’s full statement here.
During Thursday’s dinner break, Alexander was seen huddling with Lisa Murkowski, according to a senior aide to Alexander, who said they were discussing where they were on witnesses, but not coordinating their final decision together.
After Thursday’s session, Murkowski said, “I am going to go reflect on what I have heard, re-read my notes and decide whether I need to hear more.”
NBC has the rest of this story.