Senator Angus King (I-ME) said on Tuesday during MSNBC’s coverage of the Senate impeachment trial that if his Republican colleagues in the Senate did not vote to hear from witnesses, there would be an “asterisk” on the historical record of the proceeding.

Referencing his prediction yesterday that as many as ten Republican senators will vote for witnesses, King said, “I was more optimistic yesterday morning than I am now. I talked to some colleagues last night. I got —and again, this isn’t based on surveys or individual conversation, but the sort of feeling that I was getting was that they’re linking arms, and they’re going to say no. Which the reason I was so optimistic yesterday is I don’t see how anybody with a straight face, particularly after we learned over the weekend or we think we learned, could say we don’t need this witness. ”

He continued, “There is a funny way to think about it. There are staffers in the basement of the White House who know what John Bolton said, and there are publishers in New York and editors in New York, but United States senators trying to decide this historic question don’t know, don’t have the facts. To me, that is just — it’s just bizarre. If there are no witnesses called and there is a straight party-line vote, and everything is over, this impeachment will go down in history with an asterisk next to it that will say no trial. Because it has never happened before, and it has never happened in any proceeding I’ve ever heard anywhere in the country.”

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