"People want to get home for Valentine's Day." [View all]

[servermsh]

Multiple sources close to the impeachment managers disputed that claim, saying instead it was significant pressure from Senate Democrats that resulted in their decision to change course. The House managers wanted to bring Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) in to testify, only relenting after receiving pushback from multiple Senate Democrats, they said.

During the Senate break after the witness vote Saturday, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) twice came into the managers’ room off the Senate floor, according to multiple Democratic sources. Coons pressed House Democrats to relent, saying their quest for witnesses would cost them Republican votes to convict and maybe even some Democrats.

"The jury is ready to vote," Coons told the managers, according to a senior House Democratic aide. "People want to get home for Valentine‘s Day."

Coons later returned a second time to urge the managers to take a deal with Trump's lawyers to enter what House Democrats viewed as damning evidence from Herrera Beutler into the record. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also approached a House manager in the hallway to urge them against calling witnesses, according to sources close to the managers.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/13/senate-democrats-impeachment-witnesses-468992

EDIT: Please note that House Managers could NOT have called witnesses earlier. No one was allowed to do that until that moment Saturday morning.