Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), among others, are now apparently using House manager Rep. Adam Smith’s (D-Calif.) citation of a CBS report during the impeachment trial as an excuse to vote to acquit President Donald Trump.

Both senators along with many of their Republican colleagues went full snowflake after Schiff cited a CBS report that a Trump confidant warned the GOP that their heads will be on a pike if they vote against Trump.

Schiff noted the report during his closing remarks on Friday night to highlight possible jury tampering and to call upon Republicans to ignore such threats and show courage instead.

“CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that key senators were warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’ I don’t know if that’s true,” Schiff said. “I hope it’s not true.”

But Republicans, especially Murkowski and Collins, feigned more outrage over the citation of the report afterward than they have ever shown real outrage over Trump abusing his power and obstructing Congress as laid out by the evidence and witness testimony presented by Schiff and the other House managers. And the way they spoke about it, it appears they are going to use it as an excuse to acquit.

“Not only have I never heard the ‘head on the pike’ line but also I know of no Republican senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the administration,” Collins told reporters according to Politico.

“I thought he was doing fine with [talking about] moral courage until he got to the ‘head on a pike.’ That’s where he lost me,” Murkowski said “He’s a good orator. It was just unnecessary.”

“No Republican senator has been told that,” Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said before revealing the true motivation of GOP complaints. “What he has proven to all of us is, he is capable of falsehoods and will tell it to the country. And would tell it to us when we are sitting in the Senate chamber. When every one of us knows it is not true.”

Republicans are literally using Schiff’s citation of a news report, which he even said he hopes is not true, as an excuse for their eventual vote against witnesses and their vote to acquit. They can’t refute the evidence, so they are grasping at any little thing they can get their hands on to justify their unjustifiable behavior throughout this impeachment proceeding.

Twitter users were not amused and overwhelmingly threw the book at them.

Of course, Republicans can’t prove that a Trump confidant did not relay such a threat. And you can bet that Republicans would lie by denial to protect Trump anyway.

Time and time again, Murkowski and Collins have carried water for Trump despite his childish and bullying behavior over the last three years and through all the scandals. They and their fellow “moderates” in the Senate have disgraced themselves and the office they hold and should be ousted in November.

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