No GOP cracks on impeachment as Democrats lay out case against Trump

Going through evidence built up from impeachment hearings on Ukraine, U.S. House prosecutors used their first full day of Senate trial arguments to make the case that President Donald Trump should be convicted of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges, but so far their efforts have not caused any GOP Senators to publicly call for new witnesses or documents in the Senate trial.

"I welcome Speaker Pelosi to compel (John) Bolton or anyone else to come into the House and testify," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who joined other Republican Senators in saying it was the job of the House to hold evidentiary hearings - not the Senate.

"Most Senators will be pretty well informed on which way they are going to vote and won't need any additional information," said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who echoed other Republicans on the evidence presented by House Democrats.

"I stayed awake, but I didn't hear anything new," Barrasso told reporters just off the Senate floor.

"What we ought to be presented is evidence by witnesses that have personal knowledge," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). "That should have been done in the House, and not here in the Senate."

Beginning up to 24 hours of opening arguments, House impeachment managers used over seven hours of time as they started Wednesday to lay out the basics of their case against President Donald Trump, arguing the evidence is overwhelming.

"President Trump has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead House impeachment manager.

"His conduct has violated his oath of office and his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the law," Schiff added from the Senate floor.

"Everybody was in the loop," Schiff said Wednesday night, pressing the case that from President Trump on down, top officials knew what was happening with respect to Ukraine and efforts to force the government to announce investigations which would benefit the President's 2020 re-election bid.

While Senators are required to be in their seats for the impeachment proceedings, some Democrats complained that a number of GOP Senators had left the chamber during the House manager arguments.

"We do have a series of our colleagues, particularly on the other side of the aisle, who seem to get up quite a bit, and often leave the chamber for extended periods of time," Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) told CNN.

"I guess they just don't want to listen to the rest of the House testimony," Menendez added.

The trial will resume at 1 pm ET on Thursday.

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