Tag: Senate impeachment trial

Adam Schiff brilliantly used Trump’s own words against him at the start of the impeachment trial

AlterNet logoAddressing the Senate on the first official day of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) delivered a persuasive and impassioned speech that urged senators to conduct a robust and thorough proceeding — rather than rushing through the trial as many Republicans would like.

Schiff repeatedly dismantled many of the arguments against hearing new witnesses and obtaining new evidence that have been put forward by the president’s defenders, and he rebutted the arguments that the impeachment inquiry he led in the House of Representatives was too swift. The House, he said, has a constitutional right conduct impeachment in the manner it sees fit, and it was obligated to move forward once it had a compelling and urgent case against Trump. And while some critics have said that he should have fought to obtain more witness testimony and documents, he pointed out that the president obstructed many efforts to get this evidence and that going to the courts would have been unnecessary and far too slow.

In a clever and compelling move, Schiff used video clips of Trump’s own words to bolster his arguments. He played a clip of Trump saying, for instance, that he would like to see witnesses at the Senate trial. Continue reading.

GOP rejects effort to compel documents on delayed Ukraine aid

The Hill logoSenate Republicans on Tuesday rejected an opening effort by Democrats to compel the Trump administration to hand over documents related to the delayed Ukraine aid.

Democrats offered four amendments over roughly nine hours to the rules resolution that would have required the administration to turn over documents. All four were tabled, effectively blocking the requests, in 53-47 votes.

The documents, according to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), would relate to conversations and documents between President Trump, top administration officials and Ukraine on the delayed funding, which was eventually released in September.  Continue reading.

Senate rejects Democratic effort to subpoena acting White House chief of staff Mulvaney for testimony in Trump’s impeachment trial

Washington Post logoSenators began debate Tuesday afternoon over the rules that will guide the impeachment trial of President Trump — just the third in history of a U.S. president — focused on his conduct toward Ukraine.

The Senate rejected Democratic amendments to subpoena records from the White House, State Department, Defense Department and Office of Management and Budget related to the Ukraine probe. The White House stonewalled requests for those records by House investigators during their inquiry.

The Senate also rejected amendments to subpoena Trump administration officials, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; his senior adviser, Robert Blair; and top Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey. Each amendment was tabled on a 53-to-47 party-line vote. Continue reading.

McConnell drops two-day limit on opening arguments

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in the face of strong criticism from Democrats, is backing off his proposed requirement that House impeachment managers and President Trump’s lawyers each fit their opening arguments into two-day windows.

McConnell amended his organizing resolution for Trump’s impeachment trial at the last minute to give each side three days to make their opening arguments, which can last for up to 24 hours, the same amount of time given to the prosecution and defense during the 1999 impeachment trial of President Clinton.

The GOP leader made another significant amendment to his resolution by allowing the House impeachment inquiry to be entered into the Senate’s official trial record — subject to hearsay objections — something McConnell declined to greenlight in his initial proposal. Continue reading.

We Must Hear From Witnesses

For no good reason, Mitch McConnell wants to keep this trial from having any witnesses. He’s thrown up all kinds of hurdles to prevent their testimony.

A fair trial must have witnesses. We need to hear from the multiple first-hand witnesses who have potentially critical information about Trump’s abuse of power, but were blocked by Trump from participating in the House inquiry:

JOHN BOLTON:
Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton said he is willing to testify before the Senate, but Republicans refuse to let him. Continue reading “We Must Hear From Witnesses”

Isn’t That Special: Trump, Impeachment and American Exceptionalism

Liberals can finally turn a conservative weapon into one of their own.

The Senate trial of President Donald John Trump gets underway in earnest Tuesday, and the occasion calls for some reflections appropriate to the majesty of the occasion. Perhaps a meditation on American exceptionalism.

Whoa, there, why the sour face? Aren’t you feeling exceptional?

Don’t you believe the constitutional exercise underway highlights how this country has been ordained by history to play a special role in the affairs of mankind? Isn’t it true that the USA is just plain better than those other countries that are not the USA? Continue reading.

Trump’s lawyers, Senate GOP allies work privately to ensure Bolton does not testify publicly

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s legal defense team and Senate GOP allies are quietly gaming out contingency plans should Democrats win enough votes to force witnesses to testify in the impeachment trial, including an effort to keep former national security adviser John Bolton from the spotlight, according to multiple officials familiar with the discussions.

While Republicans continue to express confidence that Democrats will fail to persuade four GOP lawmakers to break ranks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has opposed calling any witnesses in the trial, they are readying a Plan B just in case — underscoring how uncertain they are about prevailing in a showdown over witnesses and Bolton’s possible testimony.

One option being discussed, according to a senior administration official, would be to move Bolton’s testimony to a classified setting because of national security concerns, ensuring that it is not public. Continue reading.

Poll: Most Americans want Trump removed from office by Senate

51 percent of respondents support the Senate convicting Trump on articles of impeachment

A majority of Americans want the Senate to convict and remove President Donald Trump from office, according to a new poll conducted by CNN.

Fifty-one percent of respondents to the poll want the Senate to convict Trump on the impeachment charges brought by the House, which would lead to his immediate expulsion from office. Meanwhile, 45 percent of respondents said they don’t want to see the president removed. The poll was conducted from Jan. 16-19 and released Monday, on the eve of the Senate impeachment trial, which gets underway Tuesday, though senators were sworn in last week.

The numbers are the most favorable for removal since another CNN poll in June 2018. Approval for impeachment and removal has generally hovered between 36 and 47 percent, peaking at 50 percent in polls from October and November 2019, once impeachment proceedings were underway in the House. Continue reading.

McConnell proposes compressed schedule for impeachment trial

The Hill logoHouse impeachment managers will have 24 hours over two days to make their opening arguments when they begin to present their case against President Trump to the Senate Wednesday, according to a resolution circulated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

President Trump’s team similarly will have two days to present their arguments and then senators will have a chance to ask questions and consider subpoenas of witnesses.

The resolution, as expected, does not require additional witnesses to be subpoenaed and does not allow House prosecutors to admit evidence into the Senate trial record until after the opening arguments are heard. Continue reading.

NOTE:  The final schedule is revised from this.

Pro-Trump Republicans are blatantly disregarding oath to deliver ‘impartial justice’ — and ‘Americans should be worried’: conservative columnists

AlterNet logoAs President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial gets underway in the U.S. Senate, most Democrats realize that Trump is almost certain to be acquitted by the Senate’s Republican majority — especially in light of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other Republicans making it painfully clear that they have no desire to honestly evaluate the evidence. Trump critics Bill Kristol and Jeffrey K. Tulis, in a January 20 article for the conservative website The Bulwark, ask a painful question: do Senate Republicans even take their oath to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution” seriously?

“Does that oath mean anything?,” Kristol and Tulis ask. “Anything at all? Citizens can’t help but suspect the answer is no.”

Kristol and Tulis go on to lament the fact that some GOP senators have been flaunting their intention to disregard their oaths. Continue reading.