Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz confirmed Tuesday that he will vote against calling more witnesses to the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and explained why.
Cruz was asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity about Trump’s defense lawyers’ performance in the Senate impeachment trial, to which he responded “I will tell you why he should be acquitted and why he will be acquitted. Quid pro quo doesn’t matter, it’s a red herring. It doesn’t matter if there was a quid pro quo or not. The reason is a president is always justified and in fact has a responsibility to investigate credible evidence of corruption.”
“On Friday, I’m going to vote that we don’t need any more witnesses with 17 witnesses in the House, we’ve heard all the evidence. The House Managers have failed,” Cruz said.
Cruz went on to say, “The Democrats built their entire case on the proposition that it was baseless and a sham and phony to investigate corruption, to investigate Burisma and the Bidens. You have done a good job of walking through the reality, which is there was a mountain of evidence. Do I know for a fact Joe Biden was corrupt? No.”
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The Texas Republican added, “But there was more than enough for the president to say we ought to investigate him. When this guy’s son is getting paid a million bucks a year, when he’s bragging about forcing Ukraine to fire the prosecutor. That stinks and at minimum should be investigated. That in and of itself.”
Cruz’s communications director, Lauren Aronson, even tweeted out Cruz’s response, confirming he will vote to deny additional witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial.
“He doesn’t need to hear from more witnesses. Time to acquit,” Aronson tweeted.
.@SenTedCruz confirms his no vote for Friday with @seanhannity. He doesn’t need to hear from more witnesses. Time to acquit.
— Lauren Blair Aronson (@laurenblair88) January 29, 2020
The White House’s defense team had its first opportunity to deliver their opening arguments in the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate on Saturday. The team had 24 hours over three days to make its arguments, but they did not use all 24 hours of their time.
Pat Cipollone, Michael Purpura, Patrick Philbin, and Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow all were in charge of laying out their defense during the impeachment trial. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: We Asked Every GOP Senator About Impeachment. Seven Ruled It Out.)
During the trial, Sekulow said, “I am not going to continue to go over and over and over again the evidence that they did not put before you because we would be here for a lot longer than 24 hours.”
According to The Hill, Cipollone said, “We don’t believe that they have come anywhere close to meeting their burden for what they’re asking you to do. In fact, we believe that when you hear the facts … you will find that the president did absolutely nothing wrong.” (RELATED: Graham Rips Democrats Over Trump Impeachment Process: ‘I Wouldn’t Cooperate’)
The House of Representatives officially voted Jan. 15 to send the articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate and approved the House’s impeachment managers.