When it rains it pours. Having lost the main vote for new witnesses and documents Friday afternoon during the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump on a narrow, near party line vote of 51-49, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hopefully asked presiding officer Chief Justice John Roberts Friday evening if he was aware of a precedent for him casting tie-breaking votes as the Senate prepared to cast more votes to table several Schumer resolutions on witnesses and evidence.
![](https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/Schumer-Chief-Justice-Tie-Break-Vote-Screen-Image-01312020-600x338.jpg)
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Schumer cited the 1868 Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson presided over by Chief Justice Salmon Chase in which he cast two tie-breaking votes.
Roberts was ready for the question and carefully read his reply:
I am, Mr. Leader. Uh, the one concerned a motion to adjourn, the other concerned a motion to close deliberations. Uh, I do not regard those isolated episodes a-hundred-and-fifty years ago as sufficient to support a general authority to break ties. If the members of this body, elected by the People and accountable to them, divide equally on a motion, the normal rule is that the motion fails. I think it would be inappropriate for me, an unelected official from a different branch of government, to assert the power to change that result so that the motion would succeed.
.@SenSchumer's parliamentary inquiry and Chief Justice John Roberts' response— CSPAN (@cspan) February 1, 2020
Watch live on C-SPAN2 -- https://t.co/6orLpAxTYm pic.twitter.com/Rie1V99sFN
Thankfully, activist Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not presiding over this trial.
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