“I know people are in a lot of anguish and believe that maybe if we had (a witness) the senators would have done what we wanted, but, listen, we didn’t need any more witnesses, we needed more senators with thorns,“ Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands general congressional district and served as one of nine impeachment managers, told CNN’s Jake Tapper about the “State of the Union”.
Plaskett and his fellow managers faced doubts about his decision to reverse the course and not call witnesses at the trial, a move that disappointed some who believed that potential testimonies could have resulted in a stronger case and led to more Republicans voting to convict the former. president. But even with witnesses, Trump’s acquittal was practically guaranteed on Saturday, given that 17 Republican senators needed to ally themselves with Democrats to condemn him – a number that seemed out of reach from the start.
But after hours of negotiations between Senate leaders, managers and Trump’s legal team, the congresswoman’s statement was included in the trial record as evidence and no witnesses appeared at the trial, frustrating Democrats who wanted to depose Herrera Beutler and the Republican deputy John Katko of New York.
Plaskett said her team heard that if they called witnesses, they would risk losing some Republican votes – including support from Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina – but she told Tapper that it did not affect the managers’ decision.
“I think we wanted to get what we wanted and got it. We believe we proved the case. We proved the elements of an impeachment article,” she said. “Of course, these (senators) were toughened up – they didn’t want the president to be convicted or disqualified.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut echoed Plaskett’s feelings later on the show, saying to Tapper: “I don’t know if there were more than seven (Republican votes of guilt), no matter what they did or how long the trial lasted. ”
Murphy, who said he believed the managers got “what they wanted” by sending Herrera Beutler’s statement to the register, argued that if the Democrats had gone ahead with witnesses, the trial could have dragged on for weeks due to Senate rules that allow debate on motions for witnesses.
“They could have lost votes if they had gone ahead with a week, two or three weeks of discussion about the witnesses,” he said.
Deputy Jamie Raskin, the House’s chief impeachment manager, also defended on Sunday the decision to stop calling witnesses after presenting the idea to the Senate floor during the trial, telling NBC that it would not have mattered if dozens of witnesses were called because it would not have overcome the “foolish arguments” of the Republicans.
“We brought the resolution right at the time when the resolutions for witnesses were called according to the Senate resolution – there was no other time when we could have done this, it was the time to do it, we won that vote, we were going to continue to do it, and then the Republicans stipulated to allow the evidence to be recorded, “said Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland.
“We could have 1,000 witnesses, but that could not overcome the kinds of silly arguments” made by Republicans, he added.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju, Ted Barrett, Lauren Fox and Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.