Daily Senate Impeachment Trial Updates: February 5

Compiled and presented by our colleagues at Hub Action (www.hubaction.org).

Republican Senators are set to acquit Trump along partisan lines.

CBS News: Susan Collins will vote to acquit Trump, saying he's "learned" from impeachment | “Republican Senator Susan Collins announced Tuesday she will vote to acquit President Trump in his Senate trial, telling CBS News she believes the president has learned a ‘pretty big lesson’ from impeachment and will be ‘much more cautious’ about seeking foreign assistance in the future.”

New York Times: Susan Collins Announces She Will Vote to Acquit Trump, Calling Conduct ‘Wrong’

Washington Post: Analysis: The 75 times Trump insisted he’d done ‘nothing wrong’ in his interactions with Ukraine | “‘I believe that the president has learned from this case,” she said. ‘The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.’ It may be — but perhaps not the lesson that Collins seems to think. On July 25 of last year, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and allegedly asked for the investigations he sought. That was one day after former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III testified on Capitol Hill about his investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign and incidents which may have constituted obstruction of justice. If Trump learned a lesson from Mueller’s probe, it apparently wasn’t that he ought not seek out the aid of foreign countries in his efforts to be reelected. In the case of his interactions with Ukraine, Trump’s shown no public contrition at all. In fact, he’s said on 75 separate occasions since questions about his interactions first arose that he did “nothing wrong” at all. Twelve of those occasions came after he had actually been impeached — after he’d learned the lesson that Collins assumes he’s learned. You may judge for yourself whether it seems as though Collins’s confidence in Trump is warranted.”

Raw Story: Americans erupt over ‘typical disingenuous Susan Collins nonsense’ as she acquits Trump’s bad behavior

TPM: Tracking The Main Excuses GOP Senators Are Offering Trump Ahead Of Acquittal | “After months of using an inevitable impeachment trial as a pass to dodge questions about President Trump’s Ukraine behavior, the pending acquittal vote has GOP senators laying out their reasons for clearing Trump for the conduct. It’s not expected that any Republicans will join Democrats in voting to remove the President, which requires a 67-vote threshold. Rather they’re reaching for a handful of excuses to explain their vote to acquit the President of charges that he sought to leverage military aid for Ukrainian investigations into his political rivals. A sprinkling of GOP senators are condemning his conduct, while many are validating it, or claiming they need not commentate on the House’s allegations beyond finding them short of an impeachable standard.”

Omaha World-Herald: Sasse says delaying aid to Ukraine was 'wrong,' but not grounds for removing Trump from office

Did Trump “learn his lesson”?

NPR: Giuliani Says Trump Should '100%' Investigate Biden After Expected Senate Acquittal | “Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, says the president should not back away from investigating Joe Biden even after Trump's expected acquittal Wednesday by the U.S. Senate. ‘Absolutely. 100%,’ Giuliani told NPR's Steve Inskeep in an interview Tuesday. ‘I would have no problem with him doing it. In fact, I'd have a problem with him not doing it. I think he would be saying that Joe Biden can get away with selling out the United States, making us a fool in the Ukraine.’... Indeed Giuliani said he was still seeking ‘more information’ about Biden's activities in Ukraine. When asked if he was doing that on the authority of the president, he replied: ‘He hasn't told me not to do it.’”

HuffPost: Rudy Giuliani Wants Trump To Investigate Joe Biden After Senate Impeachment Vote | “Giuliani told Inskeep that he’s still looking into the Bidens’ relationship with Ukraine, despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens. Asked if he’s investigating Biden on the president’s orders, Giuliani said, ‘He hasn’t told me not to do it.’... [Senator Susan] Collins [said] Tuesday that she believes Trump ‘has learned from this case’ and ‘will be much more cautious in the future.’ But Giuliani’s remarks Tuesday signify otherwise: ‘I believe that it would be one of the great corrupt events in American history if this case is not investigated at the highest levels of two governments.’”

TPM: Trump ‘Hasn’t Told Me Not To’: Giuliani Still Sniffing Around For Biden Dirt