Democrats step back and agree not to call witnesses at Trump’s impeachment trial.

The Senate was launched into confusion and chaos on Saturday after senators voted to consider allowing witnesses to be called during the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. The action received much applause from the Democratic base, as it brought an unexpected twist to what everyone expected would be a quick absolution on Saturday. But the emotion didn’t last long. Shortly after the vote, House impeachment managers, Trump’s legal team and Senate leaders reached an agreement not to call witnesses.

The deal to avoid considering witnesses came after Senate Democrats were taken aback by the impeachment administrators’ request for witnesses. It appears that the managers did not make the final decision to call the vote until minutes before the start of the session on Saturday morning. Impeachment chief Dep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said he wanted to subpoena Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, who shook Washington on Friday night with a statement that said Trump in the midst of the riot expressed sympathy for the protesters who invaded capital January 6, during a phone call full of profanity with the minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, who was asking him to cancel them. In the end, instead of calling Herrera Beutler as a witness, the senators decided to register their statement in the trial record.

Democrats in the Senate said it shouldn’t be seen as abnormal that they didn’t know there would be pressure for witnesses. “We don’t coordinate with managers,” said Sen. Ben Cardin. “So we didn’t know if they were going to ask for witnesses or not. And this is how it should have been. But it seems that Democratic leaders were not very fond of the idea that Trump’s second impeachment trial could last for days or weeks longer. Now, both sides give their final arguments on Saturday and there will be a vote on Trump’s guilt.

Raskin previously said that senators needed to hear witnesses to determine whether Trump is responsible for inciting the deadly Capitol riot that ended up killing five people. In the end, 55 senators agreed to debate the request for more witnesses and evidence. That meant five Republicans – Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska – joined all the Democrats in the vote. Graham, who had already warned Democrats that calling witnesses would open a “Pandora’s box”, ended up changing his vote from no to yes. In the end, however, it came to nothing.

The chaos over the witnesses’ vote came when it seemed very clear that the Senate was preparing to vote to absolve Trump in his second impeachment trial based on Republican votes. Previously, minority leader Mitch McConnell had signaled colleagues that he would vote to absolve Trump. He had already signaled that he could consider voting to condemn Trump and his vote would likely influence others in his party. “Given that Senator McConnell made it clear in public statements in part blaming President Trump for the violent unrest here on Capitol Hill, it was assumed that he was at least open to sentencing, so that is a significant development,” Senator Christopher Coons, Democrat of Delaware, he told reporters before the lawsuit began on Saturday. The Senate is divided into 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. A two-thirds majority is required to convict.