Markey: In Secret Vote, Senate Would Likely Convict Trump

As the impeachment trial of President Trump begins, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) says the proceedings will send a powerful message even if — as expected — Senate Democrats can't muster the seventeen Republican votes required for conviction.

"The United States Senate and the American people will see and hear the videos of the insurrection, which its participants captured and shared," Markey said. "We will also have evidence of Trump's inciting the rioters on video and tweeting as the event, as the insurrection, was actually transpiring.

"I think that it will be a very compelling case that will be presented to Democrats and Republicans," he continued. "And if Republicans choose to ignore the weight of the evidence, history will have this record. History will see that the United States Senate conducted this trial, and that the evidence was overwhelming — and yet Republicans voted to not convict Donald Trump of the crime of inciting an insurrection against the American people."

In private conversations, Markey added, many of his Republican colleague are harshly critical of Trump's behavior before and during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, in which pro-Trump rioters attempted to derail the certification of Joe Biden as president-elect.

"So many of these Republican senators are outraged at what Donald Trump did and what his supporters did on that day, but are reluctant to publicly say those same things that they are willing to utter in private because of the high political price they will have to pay back in their home states," Markey said.

If the vote on whether to convict Trump was conducted in secret, Markey predicted, "we would come very close to, if not exceed, the two-thirds vote which we need in order to convict Donald Trump. But there aren't, in my opinion, enough Republicans who are willing to vote that way in a public vote, because of the political consequences to them back home."

Markey predicted that a simple majority of Senators would vote to proceed with the trial today, rebuffing arguments from Trump's lawyers that the proceedings would be unconstitutional.

The senator declined to speculate on whether Democratic impeachment managers will call witnesses, or how Republicans might respond if they do.

He did, however, say that he expects Trump's strong hold on the Republican base will continue for the foreseeable future.

"It is what the Republican Party has become," Markey said. "It's an anti-immigrant party. It's a party that harbors deep-seated animosity towards much of the progress that we've made over the last couple of generations, in terms of inclusiveness of all Americans in the bounty of the American dream.

"Unfortunately, that polarization was exacerbated by Donald Trump, and it is now embraced — largely — by the base of the party. And I don't see that changing very soon."