President Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell.
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Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska exposed some cracks in the GOP’s approach to handling President Trump’s impeachment proceedings in the Senate, expressing misgivings to Anchorage’s NBC affiliate KTUU over Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s coordination with the White House. The moderate Alaskan senator also said she would go into the trial with an open mind to the possibility of removing the president from office based on the facts. That approach is a far cry from the conduct of the rest of the GOP, which has fallen in line behind the president despite his potentially criminal behavior.
McConnell has pledged “total coordination” with the White House when conducting the trial over Trump’s removal following the House’s vote to impeach him this month. The Majority leader also said there is “zero chance” Trump will be removed from office, which makes the trial hardly a good faith effort by a party that hasn’t acted in good faith since its new spray-tanned Messiah came on the scene in 2015. Murkowski, who has recently defied her own party on a handful of high-profile votes, including voting against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, appears set to buck her own party leadership on impeachment. “In fairness, when I heard that I was disturbed,” Murkowski said of McConnell’s approach. “To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense, and so I heard what leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process.”
Murkowski could end up being an important player in the procedural functioning of the impeachment hearing, which is currently being negotiated. McConnell needs just 51 votes to set the rules for the hearing, but if support erodes in the Republican caucus for a speedy sham trial to appease Trump, then the nature of the proceeding could change dramatically—and get far more serious for the president. There are almost certainly not enough Republican votes to remove Trump at the moment, but a longer trial with more witnesses—including the firsthand accounts of people like former National Security Adviser John Bolton and chief of staff Mick Mulvaney—could dramatically alter the dynamics of the hearing.
Murkowski is one of a few Republican senators that could prove pivotal in shaping the process, bending it towards some semblance of legitimacy, which she appears poised to at least try to do. “For me to prejudge and say there’s nothing there or on the other hand, he should be impeached yesterday, that’s wrong, in my view, that’s wrong,” Murkowski said. “If it means that I am viewed as one who looks openly and critically at every issue in front of me rather than acting as a rubber stamp for my party or my president, I’m totally good with that.”
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