Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the few Republican senators actively considering whether to vote to convict Trump, said Tuesday that it is now hard to imagine that there will be anything close to the 67 votes needed to convict Trump.
“Whether we see members change their minds after they’ve already voted, I think it’s hard to do for people,” he said.
“Because [people] they’re like, ‘Wait, wait, wait. Did you vote to say that this was unconstitutional and that you are now changing your mind? “We don’t get a lot of credit and we don’t have a lot of rights to change our minds around here,” he added.
“That’s why I think it was a little unfortunate that we had this very spontaneous vote on an extraordinarily significant issue without the debate, the brief and the analysis,” he said. “People had to make decisions very quickly.”
Murkowski said she and her colleagues were caught “standing up” by the key procedural vote. He said he did not know until Tuesday morning that he would vote on Paul’s motion later.
“I think almost everyone was surprised to be able to take only a public position today, but a vote on it. So I think there were a lot of them that maybe weren’t so prepared. I don’t think she’s as prepared as I wanted to be, “he said.