A Connecticut Democrat said Saturday it was possible that at least a few of his colleagues could vote to acquit President Donald Trump of the two impeachment charges against him, which would make it a bipartisan rejection of the House’s case.
In comments reported by POLITICO, Sen. Chris Murphy said he believes that the Democrat caucus will vote for additional witnesses, but he added that he could see some fellow party members peeling away to support the president.
“I don’t have any reason to think there are Democrats that aren’t with us on procedural votes. It’s certainly possible there are Democrats that are going to vote no on one of the articles, two of the articles,” he said.
“And I don’t have a sense where everybody is on the articles. We haven’t talked about it,” Murphy said. “[Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer (D-N.Y.) may know, but nobody has done public or private whipping on this.”
In its report, POLITICO suggested that there are two Democrats who are most likely to vote to acquit the president — Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona.
Both of those states voted convincingly for President Trump in 2016.
Some Republicans suggested there could be as many as three Democratic senators who may support acquittal.
“I think we might have a couple. I don’t want to speculate on who — obviously that puts too much pressure on them — but I really think we have people on both sides that are trying to get to a reasonable, nonpartisan answer,” Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said last month.
Some other Democrats who could vote with the president include Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
Also in December, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.), a member of Senate Republican leadership, said in December that “there are a couple of Democrats who are thinking about” voting to acquit Trump of wrongdoing.
That would be significant, Republicans say, because not a single House GOP member voted in favor of the two articles of impeachment the lower chamber returned against the president in December.