Trump Impeachment Live Stream: Senate To Vote On Whether To Acquit, Convict President

Update: 4:07 p.m. EST

The final chapter in President Trump's impeachment trial has begun.

Update 3:15 p.m. EST

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, said Wednesday he would break ranks with his GOP colleagues and vote to convict President Trump of abusing his power but vote against the second article of impeachment, obstructing Congress.

“There’s no question that the president asked a foreign power to investigate his political foe,” Romney said in his floor speech. “That he did so for a political purpose, and that he pressured Ukraine to get them to do help or to lead in this effort. My own view is that there’s not much I can think of that would be a more egregious assault on our Constitution than trying to corrupt an election to maintain power. And that’s what the president did.”

Original story

After months of revelations and two weeks of partisan presentations, President Trump’s impeachment saga ends Wednesday without the outcome in doubt as the Senate votes on whether he should be removed from office.

The trial is only the third in U.S. history. Both previous trials ended in acquittal.

You can watch the Senate proceedings live below, beginning at 4 p.m. EST. Until then, senators will be presenting their justifications for their coming votes on the two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The Senate is expected to vote mainly along party lines not to remove Trump from office despite evidence indicating Trump tried to hold $391 million in military aid to Ukraine hostage to an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, at the time the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Senate declined last week to call additional witnesses.

As of 11 a.m. EST, the Washington Post reported 13 senators had yet to say whether they would vote in favor of impeachment. The vote stood at 48-39 against removing Trump from office. It was unclear whether moderate Democrats will follow the party line or join Republicans in supporting acquittal.

Trump avoided mentioning the impeachment proceedings during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the second president to deliver the address amid an impeachment trial. Emotions, however, were running high. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to use the traditional announcement of the president’s presence in the House chamber, Trump refused to shake Pelosi’s hand, and then Pelosi ripped up a copy of his speech at the end of the address, which resembled a campaign stump speech, complete with exaggerations and distortions of statistics.

On Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., made clear the investigation of Trump is not over. He said the House likely will subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton, who reportedly says in his forthcoming book that Trump directly linked the Ukraine aid to an investigation of Biden. Nadler did not say when a subpoena would be issued.

“When you have a lawless president, you have to bring that to the fore, you have to spotlight that,” Nadler told reporters.

Pelosi slammed the address, saying it was full of lies during a morning caucus meeting, lawmakers said.

“She, like all of us here, are genuinely horrified by the pack of lies that he unveiled last night,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said. “I mean, he says he wants to protect people with preexisting conditions. He’s been spending three years trying to take those protections away. … Look, we need to remind people what his record is, and the fact that he just is a pathological liar.”

Following the end of arguments Monday, senators began delivering speeches on the Senate floor.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Trump a carnival barker and said the State of the Union address “a sad moment for democracy.”

“It was demagogic, it was undignified, it was highly partisan and, in too many places, just untruthful,” Schumer said. “Instead of a dignified president, we had some combination of a pep rally leader, a reality show host and a carnival barker. It’s not what presidents are.”

Several Republicans conceded House impeachment managers had proved their case but said the accusations did not rise to the level warranting ejection from office. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of only two senators to support calling witnesses, said Trump’s actions were “wrong” and “improper,” but she would vote to acquit.

“I’m sure there are going to be people unhappy with me in Maine,” Collins told CBS. “My job is not to weigh the political consequences, but to do impartial justice to live up to the oath that I took.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., used his time to read the name of the whistleblower, whose complaint touched off the impeachment investigation, into the record.