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.
We should not spend so much time with the machinations of the likes of Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. They were also outraged that Nadler said, “lie,” then Collins heckled Schiff.?
Besides, Trump’s already said quite publicly that they’re “human scum” if they defy him.
— Susan Hatch (@SusaMorgan) January 25, 2020
Oh, please. How convenient for Collins and Murkowski to find one single statement out of days of arguments made by Schiff and others to use as cover for a decision they had made long before this trial even began.
— Cheryl W (@upsnodowns) January 25, 2020
Susan Collins and Murkowski are disgraceful. They are upset about things Schiff or Nadler said in the Impeachment hearings but Trump has said a million things worse.They want the cake and eat it too. They want us to believe they care. https://t.co/gxsEzwKGC8
— Mary Hale (@MaryHal36056801) January 25, 2020
It was always true that Collins, Murkowski, Tillis, Gardner, et al. we’re going to have to find *some* reason to clutch their pearls in this process. If the best they can come up with Schiff’s reference to a CBS Bews story, well… https://t.co/nmHJN2mCqh
— Glen “doesn’t hate knitters” Cantrell (@SnarkyLibruhl) January 25, 2020
Really, Collins and Murkowski? You were totally onboard with a fair trial until Adam Schiff quoted a CBS news report? Or maybe, just maybe, you are feigning outrage so you’d have an excuse to tow the Trump line. At least be honest about it. https://t.co/QToUqtJddH
— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) January 25, 2020
Right. The Republicans were going to remove Trump from office UNTIL Schiff mentioned that Trump threatened them, which of course he did. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and the rest of them are all liars. They made their bed with Donald Trump long ago. Stop pretending otherwise. https://t.co/Bu5vsC4ZjU
— John Aravosis?? (@aravosis) January 25, 2020
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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