Rubio, silent during impeachment trial, votes against witnesses, plans to acquit Trump

Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted Friday against hearing from additional witnesses in the impeachment case against President Donald Trump and both plan to vote for acquittal.

After 11 days of not publicly discussing impeachment, Rubio explained his decision in an online posting hours before the vote to require additional witnesses and documents failed 51-49.

“Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a president from office,” Rubio wrote.

Rubio and Scott’s votes came as no surprise because the Florida Republicans have generally backed Trump. The Senate decision means the impeachment trial will continue without additional witnesses such as former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, joined 45 Democrats and two independents to vote in favor of hearing from witnesses.

The timing of a vote to acquit or remove Trump from office remains uncertain. Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, are expected to prevail on a vote to acquit Trump and a few Democrats may also break with their party to acquit on the two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

In the statement Rubio released Friday, his analysis of Trump’s conduct differed from other Republican senators. Rubio said that even if he assumed the allegations made by Democrats about Trump’s conduct were true when considering whether or not to convict, the facts weren’t compelling enough to remove Trump from office.

“I will not vote to remove the president because doing so would inflict extraordinary and potentially irreparable damage to our already divided nation,” Rubio said in a statement. “I also reject the argument that unless we call new witnesses this is not a fair trial.”

Trump was impeached by House Democrats over his decision to halt military aid to Ukraine until the country’s newly elected president launched an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company. The second article of impeachment focused on his decision not to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the matter.

Rubio said he has a high threshold for impeachment, and he generally isn’t in favor of impeachment in an election year when only one party supports the impeachment articles sent to the Senate.

“For purposes of answering my threshold question I assumed what is alleged is true,” Rubio wrote. “And then I sought to answer the question of whether under these assumptions it would be in the interest of the nation to remove the president.”

He said he disagreed with the House managers’ argument that “if we find the allegations they have made are true, failing to remove the president leaves us with no remedy to constrain this or future presidents. Congress and the courts have multiple ways by which to constrain the power of the executive. And ultimately, voters themselves can hold the president accountable in an election, including the one just nine months from now.”

Rubio did not weigh in on the facts and allegations presented by House managers regarding Trump’s conduct, which the president and other Republican senators have described as “perfect.”

Rubio, who normally speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, was one of a handful of senators from both parties who stayed quiet about the trial while it was ongoing.

But his silence didn’t stop him from capitalizing on the trial.

On the first day of the impeachment trial, Rubio made ripples on social media when he pulled a quill pen from his desk on the Senate floor. The moment was captured by a sketch artist and went viral, prompting Rubio’s campaign to send an email with the subject line “Take notes like Marco!” The email promises to send supporters who donate at least $35 a quill pen with the senator’s name on it. The money goes to WinRed, a newly launched Republican small-dollar fundraising effort that promotes Republicans running for office.

Rubio asked eight questions of the House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers during that phase of the trial. All of his questions were asked in conjunction with other Republican senators, and he asked one question with Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who voted in favor of witnesses.

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who has vocally defended the president throughout the trial and even bought airtime to run a TV ad in Iowa that attacks Biden and his son, confirmed late Thursday that he will vote against witnesses and to acquit the president.

“This was [the House managers’] job to prove the case, and they haven’t proven it so far,” Scott said to reporters Friday.

Scott said in a Thursday night interview with Fox News that “I believe [Trump] will be acquitted tomorrow.”

“I don’t believe we’re going to see — we’re not going to vote for witnesses,” Scott said. “The Democrats had their choice, had their time. They could have called — they wanted Bolton, they could have called Bolton back in the House, and they decided not to do it. So, I don’t think we’re going to vote for witnesses, and I think we’ll finish this up tomorrow night.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 12:55 PM.