Impeachment manager: More witnesses would not have persuaded GOP senators to convict Trump

One of the Democratic House impeachment managers charged with prosecuting former President Trump in his second impeachment trial defended her party’s decision not to call witnesses in the Senate proceedings, saying on Sunday the managers had proved their case.

Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that she believed she and her colleagues had convinced the majority of GOP senators of Trump’s guilt in inciting the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, pointing to Minority Leader Mitch McConnel’s (R-Ky.) statement excoriating the former president after Trump was acquitted on Saturday.

“He agreed with us, they all agreed with us,” Plaskett said Sunday. “What we needed we more senators with spines, not more witnesses.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper also why impeachment managers had “backed down” from their call for witnesses after securing their testimony with a 55-45 vote just hours before senators voted to acquit the former president. Plaskett contended that Democrats had secured what they really wanted: to enter a statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) on the record.  Herrera Beutler in that statement cited a conversation she had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in which he told her Trump said the rioters were “more upset about the election” than McCarthy was.

“I don’t think we backed down, I think we got what we wanted, which was her statement,” Plaskett responded.

Seven GOP senators eventually joined with Democrats to support Trump’s conviction on Saturday, short of the 17 needed to avoid acquittal.

Plaskett, who serves represents the Virgin Islands, made history last week by becoming the first nonvoting House member to be selected as part of an impeachment team. A former Republican, the Democratic delegate also served as a senior counsel for the Department of Justice before joining Congress in 2015.