Tag: Trump obstruction of Congress

Schumer calls for testimony from Mulvaney, Bolton in proposal to GOP on parameters for Trump impeachment trial

Washington Post logoThe top Senate Democrat on Sunday called for subpoenaing several senior Trump administration officials who have yet to testify in the House’s impeachment probe as witnesses for President Trump’s likely trial — part of an opening salvo in negotiations that could determine the parameters for the Senate proceedings next month.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) outlined a number of procedural demands that Democrats say would make the Senate trial fair and able to be completed “within a reasonable period of time.”

That includes subpoenas issued by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Robert Blair, a senior adviser to Mulvaney; former national security adviser John Bolton; and Michael Duffey, a top official at the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney, Blair and Duffey had been subpoenaed by the House committees and defied the summons; Bolton has not been subpoenaed but indicated he would fight one in court.

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‘We’ve seen enough’: More than a dozen editorial boards call for Trump’s impeachment

Washington Post logoThe headline the New York Times editorial board settled on was simple: “Impeach.”

The same could be said of the “damning” case laid out against President Trump, the Times said Saturday, as it joined a growing roster of more than a dozen national and regional newspapers that argue that the Senate should take up convincing accusations of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The opinions of major publications are divided as the House prepares for a historic vote Wednesday, and a host of traditionally more-conservative editorial boards have yet to weigh in — including several that snubbed Trump in 2016 by conspicuously breaking from long histories of Republican endorsements.

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NOTE:  As of December 15, we’ve found the following newspaper Editorial Boards have expresses support for impeachment:  Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, New York Times, Orlando Sentinel, Philadelphia Inquirer, Salt Lake Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, USA Today and Washington Post.

McConnell’s impeachment collusion admission handed the Democrats a powerful new weapon to damage the president

AlterNet logoMitch McConnell’s admission on Fox News that he is working behind the scenes with the White House to stack the Senate impeachment trial gives Democrats a potent weapon against the GOP, wrote Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman in the Washington Post.

“If Democrats play their procedural cards right, they can pressure Republicans to allow for a much fairer and more open trial that could actually produce new revelations — and if they refuse, extract a political price for it,” they wrote.

“By telling Sean Hannity that the process of Trump’s trial will be set up ‘in coordination with Trump’s legal team,’ McConnell told the world he wants to rig the process to produce maximal benefit for Trump,” they explained. “But McConnell might not actually be able to do this, if he doesn’t have 51 GOP votes for it — which could be the case, if vulnerable GOP senators don’t want to go along with it. And that allows Democrats to make a public case for a much fairer and more open process — and to try to force those vulnerable GOP senators to take a stand on whether they, too, want a fair and open process.”

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‘The most shameful hour’: Schiff rips GOP for ‘blinding themselves’ to defend Trump in impeachment hearings Add to list

Washington Post logoAs Thursday’s marathon debate in the House of Representatives about approving two articles of impeachment against President Trump was ongoing in Washington, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff was in New York lashing out against Republicans for “blinding themselves” in defending Trump’s conduct amid a defining moment for the country.

“For some of our members who are defending the Constitution, it is their finest hour,” Schiff said in a Thursday interview on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “But for others who are willfully blinding themselves to this president’s misconduct, it is the most shameful hour.”

The California Democrat, a frequent target of Trump’s, then lowered his head and laid out what the years ahead might look like for Republicans united in supporting a president who faces the prospect of the House Judiciary Committee voting Friday morning to send the two articles of impeachment against him — “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress” for his dealings with Ukraine — to the House floor next week.

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Trump a ‘clear and present danger,’ says Democratic investigator in impeachment hearing

The Hill logo President Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden was meant to interfere in next year’s election and “is a clear and present danger” to fair elections and U.S. national security, a Democratic staff investigator presenting impeachment evidence testified Monday.

Intelligence Committee investigator Daniel Goldman accused Trump of an “unprecedented campaign of obstruction of Congress” in his opening statement.

“President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” Goldman said.

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Democrats unveil articles of impeachment against Trump

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Tuesday unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump, accusing him of abusing his office for personal political gain and all but guaranteeing he becomes just the third president in the nation’s history to be impeached.

The historic move, which follows weeks of closed-door and public hearings on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, carries far-reaching implications for a fiercely divided country that’s split roughly in half on whether Trump should be removed from office and ensures that the impeachment debate will carry far into an election year.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had resisted impeachment for most of the year, struck a somber tone when announcing the articles in the Capitol, saying Trump’s handling of foreign policy in Kyiv had left Democrats no alternative.  

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