Trump suggests Senate to dismiss impeachment trial

The Republican president is giving mixed messages ahead of the House’s landmark vote that will launch the Senate proceedings in a matter of days, only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. Trump faces charges that he abused power by pushing Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and then obstructed Congress.

First Trump was suggesting his own ideas for trial witnesses, then he said almost the opposite Sunday by tweeting that the trial shouldn’t happen at all. 

“Many believe that by the Senate giving credence to a trial” over charges he calls a hoax, Trump tweeted, “rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have. I agree!”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned on Sunday that senators will “pay a price” if they block new witness testimony with a trial that Americans perceive as a “cover-up” for Trump’s actions. “It’s about a fair trial,” Pelosi told to media “This Week.” “The senators who are thinking now about voting for witnesses or not, they will have to be accountable.”