Opposition Witnesses not to be Called in Senate Impeachment of President Trump

Opposition Witnesses not to be Called in Senate Impeachment of President Trump

Jacob Self, Writer

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the Republican-majority Senate has decided not to call to testify a single witness who may have something bad to say about the current President. This is in retaliation against the Democrat-majority House of Representatives, which, when the impeachment was in its hands, elected not to bring to the floor a single witness who may have something good to say about Trump.

In essence, this brings the impeachment to a very odd situation: the House of Representatives, run by the Democrats, has not only brought forward the articles of impeachment but has also acted as the prosecution in the case, bringing on its witnesses and allowing the defense to, in a sense, cross-examine them. On the other side of it, the Senate, run by the Republicans, is going to not only rule on whether or not the President is guilty of several crimes, but is also acting as the President’s defense team.

This situation has left very few observers with the idea that the President has any chance of being impeached, as most commentators believe that this remainder of the trial will simply consist of a litany of pro-Trump witnesses being asked questions by pro-Trump Senators before seeing the verdict come out of a pro-Trump jury. 

Unless if something major were to change over the next couple of days, the Senate is expected to acquit the President of any charges of wrongdoing in his alleged Ukraine scandal, leaving Trump with higher approval ratings and higher poll numbers than before. At the current moment, since the impeachment came on, Trump has managed to come out on top of every single Democrat candidate in the polls, suggesting that the public (or at least the Republican base) generally disapproves of the actions of the Democrats in this latest series of maneuvers.

All of this, coupled with the latest chaos surrounding the Democratic primary, leaves many left-leaning Americans worried about the outcome of the coming 2020 election cycle.