Because Paul Ryan was a weak speaker. And yea, it got tied up indefinitely in the courts which shows that the system is broken. The fact that we can't solve these things, quickly, is a massive problem.



If Biden used his power to funnel money to his son, were Trump's actions justified? Are his actions no longer an abuse of power?

Spoils system. Because they're all hypocrites.

Because they should want to get all of the facts. If someone knows something about the trial they should be called. There is absolutely no good reason to make a decision before all of the relevant information is known.

Not to mention that it is normal practice to have whiteness in the senate.

The GOP is being willfully ignorant.

Trump also had something to do with witnesses not being able to testify in the house.

This post was edited by Brian_D on Jan 30 2020 09:07pm

Why cant people be consistent?
Trump should be impeached, Biden should be investigated and charged, any impropriety from any figure on public money should be scrutinized and acted upon.
We need to raise our standards world wide and stop excusing corruption from the people we pay over generously to ruin our countries.

Votes for witnesses:

{all 47 democrats}: Yes, presumably
{other 49 republicans}: No, presumably
Lamar Alexander: No, declared
Mitt Romney: Yes, presumably
Susan Collins: Yes, declared
Lisa Murkowski: Undecided, will declare tomorrow morning

The current tally is 49 yes, 50 no, 1 undecided.
If Murkowski declares she'll vote yes, it will be up to chief justice roberts to decline to cast a tiebreaker vote and thereby leaving witnesses blocked. There is zero expectation that Roberts will even attempt to cast a tiebreaker, something he's not necessarily even allowed to do under the constitution. If Murkowski declares she'll vote no, it will be a 51-49 split and won't go to Roberts.

This post was edited by Goomshill on Jan 30 2020 10:33pm

Yea, it's looking like he'll be acquitted tomorrow. I'm not convinced that any Senators are in danger with their votes either.

good summary



likely scenario but as we’ve seen in the last few years stranger things have happened

There is not a problem with investigating Biden in principle. The issue is that Trump unlawfully withheld federal aid in an attempt to leverage a foreign country to do so.

And waited until it was politically convenient. If this had happened in 2017 everybody would just think its another of Trumps childish attempts at retribution. He specifically waited until it was beneficial to himself personally which makes it an abuse for personal gain.

The Senate will acquit whether witnesses are allowed or not.

My question is this: Is it potentially more damaging to the GOP to block all witnesses rather than allow witnesses and then acquit?