Republican senators consider turning on Trump as impeachment trial set to start

Donald Trump's presidency hangs in the balance as the Senate decides whether to remove him from office - Getty Images North America
Donald Trump's presidency hangs in the balance as the Senate decides whether to remove him from office - Getty Images North America

Donald Trump faces an escalation of his historic impeachment trial as moderate Republican senators indicated they may join with Democrats to call new witnesses to give evidence against the president.

With the momentous case set to begin in earnest on Tuesday four senators from Mr Trump's own party suggested they were open to hearing fresh information, throwing a last minute unpredictable twist into the proceedings.

Mr Trump is only the third US president to face an impeachment trial in the Senate, and America is expected to be gripped by the court room drama as it unfolds live on television.

The president has declared the high stakes showdown a "sham," and a "witch hunt" launched by his Democrat opponents, and hired a "dream team" of lawyers to defend himself.

Under the rules it is possible the trial could conclude without any witnesses being called.

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It is happening before the Senate, which has 100 members, and a majority of 51 would be needed to pass a motion to hear from witnesses.

There are 47 Democrats and independents, meaning the support of just four Republicans would be needed.

John Bolton, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, top the list of potential witnesses Democrats want to hear from.

Both are believed to have direct knowledge of what Mr Trump was thinking as he held back almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine while seeking an investigation into political rival Joe Biden - the scandal that triggered his impeachment.

Republican senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, now appear open to calling witnesses.

Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee, have not always seen eye to eye - Credit: Don EMMERT / AFP
Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee, have not always seen eye to eye Credit: Don EMMERT / AFP

Mr Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and frequent Trump critic, has been the most vocal.

“I would like to be able to hear from John Bolton”, he has said.

Ms Collins, who faces a tough re-election fight this year in Democrat-voting Maine, went public with a statement this week.

She said: “It is likely that I would support a motion to call witnesses...just as I did [at President Bill Clinton's trial] in 1999.”

Ms Murkowski and Mr Alexander are being more cagey but have ruled nothing out.

The former is a prominent party moderate while the latter is retiring this year, theoretically meaning he can act without fear of political blowback.

“Am I curious about what Ambassador Bolton would have to say? Yes, I am,” Ms Murkowski told reporters, according to Alaska Public Radio.

Mr Alexander, keeping options open, said he would vote for new witnesses “if I needed to. Or I might not. Or I might.”

The public musing from senators who hold the fate of the Trump presidency in their hands is, it appears, being closely watched from the Oval Office.

Mr Trump rarely tweets about Mr Alexander but on Thursday threw his support behind the senator's bill to give the Congressional Gold Medal to a war hero. “Looking at this strongly!” tweeted the president.

There have also been olive branches to Mr Romney. Their past animosity is well known, with Mr Romney calling Mr Trump “a phony” and “a fraud” before the 2016 election and the president later saying the senator was a “pompous ass”.

Yet before Christmas the two men appeared sitting side by side at an event in the White House - a hint that the president knows, for now at least, he needs to count on his senators.

More aggressive tactics are also emerging. To ward off Democrats from trying to force new witnesses, hard line Republicans are threatening to call their own if it comes to that.

Specifically, they have floated putting Mr Biden, the front-runner to be the Democratic nominee for this year’s presidential election, on the witness stand.

Polls suggest a vast majority of Republican voters are still loyal to the president and do not want him removed from office. So Republican senators voting to hear from witnesses could lose support at home.

The chance of Mr Trump being removed from office remains slim. At least 67 of the 100 senators would need to vote to convict him.

But testimony from Mr Trump's inner circle would create new waves in already uncharted political waters for this president.