Trump impeachment news – live: Biden says ‘George Washington is rolling over in his grave’ as senate ready to acquit president today

Donald Trump looks all but certain to be acquitted by the Senate – perhaps as imminently as Friday evening – after a key Republican senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, backed away from supporting Democratic calls to extend the impeachment process by calling new witnesses.

Commenting on the performance of the GOP throughout the trial, Democratic 2020 front-runner Joe Biden told ABC News: “I find this defence astounding. ‘Yeah, he did it, but it doesn’t matter.’ I mean, George Washington is rolling over in his grave.”

The president was meanwhile on jubilant form at his latest Keep America Great rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday night, mocking his potential 2020 challengers and bizarrely warning his rural audience that the opposition “want to kill our cows” and that their farms would “go to hell” unless he is re-elected in November.

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