There are now 51 votes to approve calling witnesses in Trump impeachment trial: PBS

After pieces of John Bolton’s manuscript leaked to the press confirming President Donald Trump’s bribery of Ukraine, Republicans have turned to support the witnesses they once opposed.

Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) both voted against witnesses and were leaning against them until Bolton’s manuscript was leaked to the press after it was turned over to the White House for approval.

PBS News Hour reporter Lisa Desjardins tweeted Monday evening that the news tipped the scales and there were officially 51 votes to approve witnesses.

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How Sweet! We will get to hear more details of Donny's crimes.  I suspect our resident conservatives will be rushing to the store to buy earplugs. 

The Republicans were screaming that they didn't get to call witnesses in the House impeachment process, saying that it was a horrible miscarriage of justice witch hunt fake nooze blah blah blah belch grunt snort. Now they've been saying that witnesses don't need to be called for the Senate trial, you can have a perfectly good trial without them (???).

The only trouble with that reasoning is that the House proceeding was an investigation, not a trial; Trump was invited to call witnesses then, and he declined; and the Senate proceeding IS a trial and trials need witnesses. Also conveniently not mentioned by the Republicans is that Trump blocked several witnesses from testifying, so the entire story wasn't told.

Next, we'll see the Republicans trying to harass Joe and Hunter Biden. I saw a harbinger of this on Fox "News." Some moron was bloviating about Burisma and how Hunter Biden was obviously...something. I didn't bother to follow the guy's argument too closely, but it was something about how horrible it was that a member of Joe Biden's family got a cushy job. Cue the trumpets; when Baby Trump and I-love-to-grab-her-sweet-ass Ivanka make millions from Trump-assisted deals, that's perfectly OK. No nepotism to see here. No siree Bob. Aside from that, even if Hunter Biden is the Antichrist, does that entitle Trump to use taxpayer money to blackmail Ukraine into investigating him?

Trump's team is moving to suppress the book, using some kind of specious reasoning such as writing critical of Trump should be illegal and anyway it's all fake nooze and Hillary sent emails, what about THAT, huh??? But if Bolton testifies, I'm sure he'll be bringing a copy of the book with him.

Once again, the Republicans will unanimously vote to acquit regardless, but if they do so after Bolton's testimony, they'll be digging their own graves just a little bit deeper. And of course, in November, that may or may not matter...the "base" would vote for Trump if he shot the Pope. But I would love to see the Democrats go after the vulnerable Republican senators like wolves after an elk.

Thats right - Democrats will call John Bolton who will testify the Uklraine money was contingent upon the Ukrainian president investigating Biden.

And Hunter Biden will testify he got a job in Ukraine because of his connections.

One of those two things is a crime.     

What about Joe's bribe to get Hunter the job?

The Dems have a propensity of turning a victory into a defeat.  I hope they don't f*** this up.  I'm fine with sacraficing Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, and even Hillary so we can hear Bolton, Mulvaney and whoever else we can get to testify.  New testimony will absolutely sink Trump.  Let the Bidens take one for the team to gaurantee a win for the country.  I know all to well the argument about revelency. It is a valid argument.  Politics are a dirty business.  Lets cut a deal with the devil, one witness for one witness, to illuminate in public, Trump's wrong doings.  If after the testimony and he is not booted out of office, the republicans are sunk in 2020.  It's a win, win for the Dems.

The fly in the ointment is if Trump invokes presidential privledge to prevent testimony.

1) You have no proof or indication that such a bribe took place, and in fact, Ukraine has specifically said that neither Joe nor Hunter is guilty of any wrongdoing. So "Joe's bribe" is just a Republican fantasy.

2) It would not have been a violation of US law for Joe Biden to have done that.

3) And even if he did, that has absolutely nothing to do with Trump's using taxpayer money for extortion purposes.

Trump can only invoke that privilege to stop himself from testifying, not anyone else. Moreover, he's continually said that he WANTS to testify (whether that's bullshit or not).

The Democrats shoud welcome the Bidens' testimony. Neither did anything wrong, and Republicans will just shame themseves by attacking them and making up specious accusations. Joe Biden will come away from the hearing strengthened and vindicated, and will be that much better positioned to crush Trump like a grape.

It's true that there should be a fundamental objection to the Bidens testifying: whatever they have to say has no relevance to Trump's extortion scheme. But I think the Democrats should let the Republicans hang themselves. And a plus--the Republicans will have no excuse to block the testimony of actually relevant witnesses called by the Democrats.

In fact, I strongly suspect that the primary reason they're trying to stage a witness-free trial is that Trump has no witnesses that could serve to exonerate him, while there are dozens of potential witnesses that could incriminate him.

What about it?    Please, share your citation.   I'm on pins and needles!

Hey, if Trump fantasizes about it, and Fox News speculates on it, that's solid gold ironclad proof, ain't it?

It's so hilarious that Trumpers will unquestioningly believe ANYTHING the Orange One pulls out of his ass. I mean, talk about credulity and naivete!

Again, it doesn't even matter what Hunter Biden did or didn't do, and the Trump defense team knows that very well. It's just a smokescreen. Let's concentrate on the conduct of Trump the Traitor.

Well the Trump defense is already floating the "Ukraine interfered in our election" conspiracy theory.   So I suppose saying Joe Biden paid a bribe for his son's job is fair game too.

They dont call 'em "birthers" for nothin.