Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was perhaps the most crucial vote in the Senate's decision to ultimately reject additional witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial.
He was long seen as a possibility to join the ranks of Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in crossing the aisle to link up with Democrats, but he and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wound up sticking with the GOP. Alexander has explained his reasoning a few times, arguing Trump's dealings with Ukraine were "inappropriate" but didn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense. He also worried about a conviction tearing the country apart, "pouring gasoline on the fire of cultural divisions that already exist."
But he also provided USA Today with a slightly different rationale. He said he was "struck" by the fact that not a single House Republican voted to impeach Trump following congressional hearings. If just a few of them had voted in favor, he told USA Today he might have voted differently.
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Unsurprisingly, that explanation doesn't appear to hold up for some Democrats. Read more at USA Today. Tim O'Donnell
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