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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2020)
A7 THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, FEbRuARy 1, 2020 Senate rejects witnesses in impeachment trial By LISA MASCARO, ERIC TUCKER and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Senate rejected the idea of summoning witnesses for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial late Fri- day, all but ensuring his acquittal. But senators con- sidered pushing off final vot- ing on his fate to next week. The vote on allowing new witnesses was defeated 51-49 on a near party-line vote. Republicans Susan Col- lins of Maine and Mitt Rom- ney of Utah voted along with the Democrats for witnesses, but that was not enough. Despite the Democrats singular focus on hearing new testimony, the Repub- lican majority brushed past those demands to make this the first Senate impeach- ment trial without witnesses. Even new revelations Friday from former national secu- rity adviser John Bolton did not sway GOP senators, who said they’d heard enough. That means the eventual outcome for Trump would be an acquittal “in name only,” said Rep. Val Dem- ings, D-Fla., a House pros- ecutor, during final debate. Some called it a cover-up. The impeachment of the president now lands squarely in an election year before a divided nation. Caucus vot- ing begins Monday in Iowa, and Trump gives his State of the Union address the next night. Trump was impeached by the House last month on charges the he abused power and obstructed Congress like no other president has done as he tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate Dem- ocratic rival Joe Biden, and then blocked the congressio- Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, walks to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill on Friday after the Senate voted to not allow witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. nal probe of his actions. The Democrats had badly wanted testimony from John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser whose forthcoming book links Trump directly to the charges. But Bolton won’t be summoned, and none of this appeared to affect the trial’s expected outcome. In an unpublished man- uscript, Bolton writes that the president asked him during an Oval Office meet- ing in early May to bol- ster his effort to get Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to a person who read the passage and told the Associated Press. The per- son, who was not authorized to disclose contents of the book, spoke only on condi- tion of anonymity. In the meeting, Bolton said the president asked him to call new Ukrainian Pres- ident Volodymyr Zelenskiy and persuade him to meet with Trump’s personal law- yer, Rudy Giuliani, who was planning to go to Ukraine to coax the Ukrainians to inves- tigate the president’s politi- cal rivals. Bolton writes that he never made the call to Zelenskiy after the meeting, which included acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. The revelation adds more detail to allegations of when and how Trump first sought to influence Ukraine to aid investigations of his rivals that are central to the abuse of power charge in the first article of impeachment. The story was first reported Friday by The New York Times. Trump issued a quick denial. “I never instructed John Bolton to set up a meeting for Rudy Giuliani, one of the greatest corruption fight- ers in America and by far the greatest mayor in the his- tory of NYC, to meet with President Zelenskiy,” Trump said. “That meeting never happened.” Key Republican senators said even if Trump commit- ted the offenses as charged by the House, they are not impeachable and the parti- san proceedings must end. “I didn’t need any more evidence because I thought it was proved that the pres- ident did what he was charged with doing,” retir- ing GOP Sen. Lamar Alex- ander of Tennessee, a key hold out, told reporters Fri- day at the Capitol. “But that didn’t rise to the level of an impeachable offense.” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she, too, would oppose more testimony in the charged partisan atmosphere, having “come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate.’’ She said, “The Congress has failed.” Eager for a conclusion, Trump’s allies nevertheless suggesting the shift in tim- ing to extend the proceed- ings into next week and it shows the significance of the moment for senators in cast- ing votes in only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. The situation remained fluid, but senators have indi- cated they want more time to publicly debate the charges and air their positions on the coming vote, according to a Republican familiar with the proposal but unauthorized to discuss it. The person was granted anonymity. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the offer to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, the person said. Senators were consid- ering it while the proceed- ings were underway on the Senate floor. Schumer had not yet agreed to it. Under the proposal, the Senate would resume Mon- day for final arguments, with time Monday and Tues- day for senators to speak. The final voting would be Wednesday. To bring the trial toward a conclusion, Trump’s attor- neys argued the House had already heard from 17 wit- nesses and presented its 28,578-page report to the Senate. They warned against prolonging it even fur- ther after House impeached Trump largely along party lines after less than thee months of formal proceed- ings making it the quick- est, most partisan presiden- tial impeachment in U.S. history. Some senators pointed to the importance of the moment. “What do you want your place in history to be?” asked one of the House managers, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger. Trump is almost assured of eventual acquittal with the Senate nowhere near the 67 votes needed for convic- tion and removal. To hear more witnesses, it would have taken four Republicans to break with the 53-seat majority and join with all Democrats in demanding more testimony. But that effort fell short. Chief Justice John Rob- erts, in the rare role presid- ing over the impeachment trial, could break a tie, but that seems unlikely. Murkowski noted in announcing her decision that she did not want to drag the chief justice into the partisan fray. Protesters stood out- side the Capitol as senators arrived on Friday, bu few visitors have been watching from the Senate galleries. Bolton’s forthcoming book contends he person- ally heard Trump say he wanted military aid withheld from Ukraine until it agreed to investigate the Bidens. Trump denies saying such a thing. The White House has blocked its officials from testifying in the proceed- ings and objected that there are “significant amounts of classified information” in Bolton’s manuscript. Bolton resigned last September — Trump says he was fired — and he and his attorney have insisted the book does not contain any classified information. Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Andrew Taylor, Matthew daly, Laurie Kell- man, deb Riechmann and Padmananda Rama contrib- uted to this report. US bars foreigners from China over virus fear Seattle chosen as screening airport By KEN MORITSUGU and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON — The United States on Fri- day declared a public health emergency and announced significant entry restrictions because of a new virus that hit China and has spread to other nations. Health and Human Ser- vices Secretary Alex Azar, who is coordinating the fed- eral response, announced that President Donald Trump has signed an order that will temporarily bar entry to the U.S. of foreign nationals, other than imme- diate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, who have traveled in China within the last 14 days. The new restrictions take effect at 5 p.m. EST on Sunday. “It is likely that we will continue to see more cases in the United States in the coming days and weeks, including some limited per- son-to-person transmis- sions,” Azar said. “The American public can be assured the full weight of the U.S. government is work- ing to safeguard the health and safety of the American people.” Americans returning from China will be allowed into the country, but will face screening at select ports of entry and required to undertake 14 days of self-screening to ensure they don’t pose a health risk. Those returning from Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine. Beginning Sunday, the U.S. will also begin fun- neling all flights to the U.S. from China to seven major airports where passengers can be screened for illness. The virus has infected almost 10,000 people glob- ally in just two months, a troublesome sign that prompted the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a global emer- SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY gency. The death toll stood at 213, including 43 new fatalities, all in China. A public health emer- gency in the U.S. allows the government to tap additional resources to send to states, such as emergency funding and if necessary drugs or equipment from the national stockpile, and to suspend certain legal requirements. Robert Redfield, direc- tor of the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Preven- tion, said that while the risk in the U.S. is low, “I want to emphasize that this is a sig- nificant global situation and it continues to evolve.” There are six cases of this virus in the U.S. and 191 individuals are being moni- tored, Redfield said. Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health, said one reason the U.S. stepped up its quaran- tine measures was an alarm- ing report from Germany that a traveler from China had spread the virus despite showing no symptoms. Fauci contrasted it with the TUESDAY WEDNESDAY response to recent outbreaks of Ebola, which can’t be spread unless someone is very ill. At the same time, federal health authorities were rec- ognizing that the test they’re using to detect the virus isn’t always dependable. Red- field said when it was used on some of the people cur- rently in isolation, they’d test positive one day and negative another. Of the six U.S. patients so far, airport screening detected only one. “Astute doctors” caught four others, after the people sought care and revealed that they’d traveled to China, Redfield said. And the CDC diag- nosed the most recent case, the spouse of one of those earlier cases, who was being closely monitored. Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University expert on public health law, said putting a large num- ber of people under quar- antine “is virtually unprece- dented in modern American history.” “But I think it’s justi- THURSDAY FRIDAY Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo A medical worker in a hazardous materials suit uses a body thermal scanner to check the temperature of a Chinese passenger who just arrived from Beijing at the Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, Russia on Friday. fied,” he said, noting the evacuees had been in a hot zone for the virus for a long time. Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun offered Amer- ica’s “deepest compassion” to the Chinese, noting that the deadly outbreak came during the peak of their hol- iday season, when everyone would ordinarily be cele- brating and not living in fear of contracting the virus. Biegun said the U.S. is working hard to find donors of supplies and making REGIONAL FORECAST Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. Seattle 51 35 Rain 44 35 45 33 A couple of showers 47 43 52 47 53 44 Cloudy, rain possible A brief shower Periods of rain or two Rain 51 41 Rain Aberdeen Olympia 51/36 52/36 Wenatchee Tacoma Moses Lake UNDER THE SKY TODAY'S TIDES Astoria through Thursday Tonight’s Sky: Emerging above the eastern horizon before sun- rise are Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Astoria / Port Docks Temperatures High/low ................................ 52/35 Normal high/low .................. 51/38 Record high .................. 70 in 1940 Record low .................... 18 in 1950 Precipitation Thursday ................................. 0.67” Month to date ...................... 17.76” Normal month to date ......... 9.91” Year to date .......................... 17.76” Normal year to date ............. 9.91” Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020 Time High (ft.) Time Low (ft.) 5:46 a.m. 6:37 p.m. 7.7 12:42 p.m. 2.4 5.6 none Cape Disappointment 5:34 a.m. 6:00 p.m. Source: Jim Todd, OMSI Hammond SUN AND MOON Sunrise today .................. 7:39 a.m. Sunset tonight ............... 5:20 p.m. Moonrise today ........... 11:20 a.m. Moonset today ............ 12:20 a.m. First Full Last New 5:43 a.m. 6:22 p.m. Warrenton 5:41 a.m. 6:32 p.m. Knappa 6:23 a.m. 7:14 p.m. Depoe Bay Feb 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 23 4:49 a.m. 5:23 p.m. 7.4 12:03 p.m. 2.6 5.5 11:27 p.m. 3.2 7.8 12:22 p.m. 2.5 5.8 11:47 p.m. 3.1 8.1 12:26 p.m. 2.5 6.0 11:48 p.m. 3.0 7.9 12:19 a.m. 1.9 5.9 1:43 p.m. 2.0 7.8 11:33 a.m. 2.8 5.8 10:51 p.m. 3.3 City Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Denver Honolulu Houston Los Angeles Miami New York City Phoenix San Francisco Wash., DC Sun. Hi/Lo/W 53/39/c 46/35/c 37/32/c 62/43/s 64/37/pc 81/68/sh 68/43/s 81/54/s 79/57/t 47/34/c 75/49/s 59/51/pc 51/37/c 60/42/s 46/37/pc 51/34/s 73/54/pc 70/24/pc 81/68/pc 74/56/pc 67/47/s 71/52/s 47/40/pc 78/50/s 55/43/pc 54/41/pc Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. 54/28 Kennewick Walla Walla 58/31 Lewiston 59/32 58/35 Hermiston The Dalles 59/31 Enterprise Pendleton 49/24 59/31 55/31 La Grande 49/27 53/33 NATIONAL CITIES Today Hi/Lo/W Pullman 57/27 53/36 Salem 51/26 Yakima 55/27 Longview 51/35 Portland 54/36 Spokane 49/25 51/31 51/31 Astoria ALMANAC arrangements for a “robust effort to help the Chinese people get their arms around this outbreak.” The announcement came hours after the State Depart- ment issued a level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory, the highest grade of warning, and told Americans in China to consider departing using commercial means. “Trav- elers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice,” the advi- sory said. Corvallis 54/35 Albany 53/34 John Day Eugene Bend 55/36 54/26 57/26 Ontario 49/35 Caldwell Burns 53/23 52/33 Medford 53/35 Klamath Falls 53/30 City Baker City Brookings Ilwaco Newberg Newport Today Hi/Lo/W 46/29/c 52/38/r 51/38/r 52/34/r 51/36/r Sun. Hi/Lo/W 36/19/c 45/35/sh 44/37/sh 44/31/sh 43/36/sh City North Bend Roseburg Seaside Springfi eld Vancouver Today Hi/Lo/W 54/38/r 55/38/r 51/36/r 54/35/sh 52/35/r Sun. Hi/Lo/W 46/36/sh 46/32/sh 43/36/sh 44/31/sh 43/30/sh
