Marco Rubio blasted ‘complete farce’ of Impeachment witness vote

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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio decried losing a vote in the second Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump to allow witnesses, claiming that Democrats getting witnesses is a “complete farce” and unfair to the former President.

“Last night left wing Twitter starting beating up the managers for not calling witnesses & this morning they caved. By a majority vote the Democrats can now force a trial where the House Managers get their witnesses & former President Trump gets none. A complete farce,” blasted Rubio on Twitter after the bipartisan 56-44 vote Saturday morning to allow witnesses.

Eventually, a deal was agreed to to abandon the call for witnesses and head directly into closing arguments. Instead, a statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Buetler was read into the record as a stand in for her testimony

“All this drama for nothing. House managers made fools of themselves. They have agreed to have a news article for the record something they could have gotten without resistance from anyone,” Rubio groused.

For Rubio, who has been opposed to the Trump impeachment trial from the start as a “waste of time” and partisan political theater, Saturday’s tweet continues a trend of skepticism about the proceedings.

On Friday during the question and answer period of the Senate hearing, Rubio submitted a question to House Impeachment managers that seemed to apply to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Voting to convict the former President would create a new precedent that a former official can be convicted and disqualified by the Senate. Therefore, is it not true that under this new precedent, a future House, facing partisan pressure to lock her up, could impeach a former Secretary of State and a future Senate be forced to put her on trial and potentially disqualify from any future office?”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, on behalf of the House team, dismissed the “jurisdictional issue” as an irrelevant hypothetical. But for Rubio, the talking point is live.

“It’s the creation of a new political weapon that we will see used. We’ll regret creating that weapon. One day, it’ll be used by a Democratic Senate to disqualify a former cabinet member who wants to challenge a Democratic incumbent. And one day, it’ll be used by a former Republican, future Republican Senate to disqualify a Democratic Vice President from running for President,” Rubio predicted on the Hugh Hewitt Show Friday.