by Nancy LeTourneau
January 30, 2020

... The vote on Friday about whether to call witnesses will soon be eclipsed by a vote on whether or not to remove Trump from office. The connection between the two, however, is obvious. The senators who will say “no” to witnesses want to exonerate the president as quickly as possible. They will then face voters in nine months and learn whether or not that was enough to keep them in office.

But ... Whether they win or lose their bid for re-election, these votes will determine their legacy ...

... no matter what these Republican Senators have accomplished in their political careers, they will be remembered for these votes that “affected the course of history.” They will forever be tied to the catastrophic effects of a Trump presidency.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/30/senators-are-about-to-cast-the-most-important-votes-of-their-careers/

By MARIANNE LEVINE
01/30/2020 02:52 PM EST

The pressure to end the debate in the president’s impeachment trial is coming from a closely watched contingent: Senate Republicans up for reelection in battleground states ...

“I have two priorities, one is get the president reelected and keep the majority in the Senate,” added Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) ...

“They’re all in a no-win position,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) “Vote against the president on witnesses, they are going to lose a whole bunch of support amongst the base. That’s real. So I think some of them are probably choosing the lesser of two evils. They get hurt politically no matter what they choose” ...

... A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 75 percent of registered voters want the Senate to allow witnesses in the impeachment trial. That includes half of Republican voters ...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/30/at-risk-republicans-end-senate-trial-109438

Dennis Aftergut, Opinion contributor
Published 2:03 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2020
Updated 4:04 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2020

... In 2017 and 2018, Trump provided lethal military aid without threat of delaying it. He changed course only after Biden declared his Democratic presidential candidacy last April. It had been widely publicized years earlier that Hunter Biden had joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

The ex post facto efforts to come up with an explanation for the delay in aid are powerful indications of corrupt intent.

Where is the evidence of the president fighting any supposed corruption, at home or abroad, not tied to a political rival?

All these indicators of corrupt intent are reinforced by the obvious inference from the presidential blockade of testimony and documents sought by Congress. Stonewalling leaves the obvious inference of intent to conceal guilt ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/01/30/trump-impeachment-corrupt-intent-nullifies-mixed-motives-column/4619875002/