* Growing number of Republicans say they will vote to acquit * Robert Reich: Democrats share blame for the rise of Trump * Martin O’Malley: ‘How do you fall for the Sanders scam?’As a growing number of Republican senators confirmed they will vote to acquit Donald Trump at the conclusion of his impeachment trial on Wednesday, the saga threatened to overshadow the first contest of the Democratic primary season in Iowa on Monday.On Friday, the Senate voted 51-49 to block testimony from new witnesses and the admission of new documentation in Trump’s trial, the first time the body has elected to block such evidence in history.Just two Republican senators, Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, broke ranks in the vote, which paved the way for Trump’s acquittal.Although neither has publicly stated how they will vote next week, a super majority of 67 would be required to remove Trump from office – a figure that appears all but impossible in a hyper-partisan era.Some senior GOP senators predicted on Sunday that every Republican in the chamber would vote to acquit the president, and suggested a handful of Democrats up for re-election in swing states might also vote to acquit.The Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander, who will retire this year and who last week briefly wavered on whether former national security adviser John Bolton should provide potentially damning testimony, confirmed to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday he would vote to acquit.> I think he shouldn’t have done it, I think it was wrong> > Lamar AlexanderDespite that, Alexander labelled Trump’s behaviour in the Ukraine scandal, in which the president pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to commence investigations into the Biden family and other political rivals, as “wrong” and “inappropriate”.“I think he shouldn’t have done it,” Alexander said. “I think it was wrong. Inappropriate was the way I’d say – improper, crossing the line.”The Democratic-controlled House sent two articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial, one concerning abuse of power and the other obstruction of Congress.Bolton has reportedly detailed direct interactions with Trump over Ukraine in a book which the White House is seeking to block. Few observers doubt that even without Bolton’s testimony, the case against Trump was proved.But Republicans have said that does not mean the president should be removed. Like other members of his party, Alexander said his vote to acquit was linked to the fact that removing Trump would mean he could not run in the election in November.“You know,” he said, “it struck me, really for the first time, early last week, that we’re not just being asked to remove the president from office. We’re saying, ‘Tell him he can’t run in the 2020 election which begins Monday in Iowa.’”The Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, who faces re-election, also confirmed she would vote to acquit, despite meekly criticising the president’s behaviour.“I think ferreting out corruption [in Ukraine] is absolutely the right thing to do,” she told CNN’s State of the Union. “Now if he was tying it to other things, that’s the president. It’s probably something that I wouldn’t have done.”Adam Schiff, the Democrats’ lead impeachment manager, said Republican senators’ acknowledgement of wrongdoing but decisions to acquit were “remarkable”.“The House proved the corrupt scheme that they charged in the articles of impeachment,” Schiff told CBS’s Face the Nation, adding it was “pretty remarkable when you now have senators on both sides of the aisle admitting the House made its case and the only question is, should the president be removed for office because he’s been found guilty of these offences?”> The Senate is the jury today, but we are the jury tomorrow> > Pete ButtigiegPolling released by NBC and the Wall Street Journal on Sunday indicated that the country remains split over Trump’s impeachment, with 46% of registered voters supporting the president’s removal and 49% believing he should remain.Although Iowa holds the first vote for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday – as well as a formal process for the Republicans – many of the candidates, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, will be forced to return to Washington to hear closing arguments in the Senate trial.Trump is scheduled to deliver his state of the union address on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, giving him a primetime platform.Though his likely acquittal in the impeachment trial will be on Wednesday, many observers expect him to claim exoneration anyway, as he did, inaccurately, after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference last year. Trump was also due to give a pre-Super Bowl interview to Sean Hannity, a friendly Fox News host, on Sunday afternoon.Democrats are looking to turn the Senate trial to their favour, branding it a coverup and mobilizing grassroots organisations to punish Republicans at the polls.Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigeg, polling in third place in Iowa, told CNN on Sunday: “The Senate is the jury today, but we are the jury tomorrow.“And we get to send a message at the ballot box that cheating, lying, involving a foreign country in our own domestic politics, not to mention abuse of power more broadly and bad administration, that’s not OK, that we can do better.”Senate Republicans have indicated they too plan to capitalise on Trump’s likely acquittal. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chair of the judiciary committee, on Sunday urged colleagues to commence their own investigations of the Bidens’ activities in Ukraine and to examine the circumstances of the start of the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling, which led to the appointment of Robert Mueller.“We’re going to get to the bottom of this to make sure it never happens again,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday.Addressing Republican voters, he added: “You should expect us to do this. If we don’t do it, we’re letting you down.”
