Cruz: Hearing from witnesses could extend Senate trial to up to 8 weeks

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Sunday that the Senate’s impeachment trial could last as long as eight weeks if the chamber elects to hear from witnesses.

“I think it’s certainly possible that this trial could last one to two weeks. On the other hand, if the Senate makes the decision to go down the road of additional witnesses, that could extend it to six to eight weeks or even longer,” Cruz told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

{mosads}“This week is going to be the first time in a year that the president has had the opportunity to defend himself, to lay out the facts, to lay out the law, to lay out the actual substance,” he added.

Cruz, like his fellow Senate Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said that if the Senate does vote to call witnesses, rules of reciprocity should apply.

“If the prosecution gets a witness, the defense gets a witness. If the prosecution gets two, the defense gets two. If the prosecution gets to call [former national security adviser] John Bolton, the prosecution gets to call Hunter Biden,” Cruz said. “The Democrats are terrified about seeing a witness like Hunter Biden testify because they don’t want to hear evidence of actual corruption.”

Democrats, Cruz said, “blocked all those witnesses in the House. They’re not going to succeed in blocking them in the Senate. If they want to go down the road of witnesses, that means the president enjoys the rights to due process, which means he can call witnesses and lay out his defense.”