Dems 'caved' on witnesses in Trump impeachment trial, drawing condemnation from left and right

Democrat impeachment managers on Saturday drew harsh criticism from both the left and the right after their stark reversal on whether to call witnesses in the Senate trial of former President Donald Trump.

Critics said Democrats "caved" for having a press release from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., read into the record after initially asking to depose her -- a move that could have potentially elongated the impeachment trial by weeks.  After that masterful presentation, I am not about to second-guess House managers’ decisions on further witnesses or depositions. Their work yielded an overwhelming record supporting conviction Beutler threw a wrench into the impeachment proceedings after a Friday night statement in which she said Trump seemingly sided with the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 during a conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol. McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters," she said. "That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’"