Democrats and White House Rest Cases as Impeachment Sputters Toward a Verdict

One moderate Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, broached the idea on Monday of censuring Mr. Trump after the trial concludes, a largely symbolic gesture that he said could attract bipartisan support.

“His behavior cannot go unchecked by the Senate,” Mr. Manchin said, “and censure would allow a bipartisan statement condemning his unacceptable behavior in the strongest terms.”

But given the stark polarization in the chamber — where most Republicans are reluctant to criticize Mr. Trump and Democrats are almost uniformly in agreement that he should be removed for his behavior — there was no serious discussion of that option.

Despite the president’s lawyers’ frequent references to the Iowa caucuses, few senators needed a reminder of the political calendar. Just after the arguments concluded, three senators sitting in judgment of Mr. Trump who are running for the Democratic presidential nomination — Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — raced to catch planes back to the Midwest for rallies. A fourth, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, traveled to New Hampshire, which will hold the 2020 race’s first primary next week.

So far, the senators who have stated their decisions on acquittal or conviction have lined up along party lines, with Democrats echoing the House managers as they announced support for conviction and Republicans insisting the president’s removal was unsupportable on varied grounds.

“Simply asserting — at least 63 times — that their evidence was quote unquote overwhelming doesn’t make the House of Representatives’ allegations proven or an impeachable offense,” said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the longest serving Senate Republican, on Monday as he announced his acquittal vote.

But several moderate Republicans and Democrats, whose votes could swing against their parties, had yet to declare their intentions. It would take a two-thirds vote of the Senate — 67 senators — to convict and remove Mr. Trump, an outcome that appeared far out of reach. Still, the president is eager to be acquitted by a bipartisan vote and to avoid the spectacle of having even one Republican vote to convict him.

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