"Methinks he doth protest too loudly"
That nails it even if it isn't quite what Shakespere wrote.
1
Impeachment “is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” Mr. Sekulow said. “That is politics, unfortunately. Hamilton put impeachment in the hands of this body, the Senate, precisely and specifically to be above that fray.”
Precisely and specifically to be above the fray. Does he even get the irony of his statement? Senate Republicans are deeply involved in the fray, not above it. Witnesses may not change GOP minds to vote for Trump's removal, but it might enlighten voters' views on whether or not their Senators were putting party above the good for the country.
3
At an old "Rate My Professors" site with a bunch of entries from 2005. Dersh got 2 "Average", 13 "Awesome" and 17 "Awful". Here are comments collected from the "Awful"s:
"Only thing u will learn in the class are his exaggerated achievements… Arghh! He is practically inaccessible for students... I found him to be impolite, not helpful...loves to drop the list of accomplishments he's done (in the distant past)… HLS's least distinguished faculty member by far. Hasn't contributed anything to legal scholarship in years, Richard Posner even said he's "not a scholar". And a real hypocrite when it comes to civil liberties and human rights to boot… Horrid - a name dropper and cares for nothing except for his own personal self-aggrandisement. Rude to students except for those who nod their heads in constant agreement to whatever falls out of his mouth. Egotistical… Liar: When he speaks, he comes across as someone who cares about humans and their rights. One on one, with his students, its a different story..."
Which all fits with Laurence Tribe's observation, "“The one and only compass Alan Dershowitz follows these days is the one that will bring him maximum media attention.”
And also Pat Leahy's remark, “I now understand listening to Professor Dershowitz that he’s smarter than all other professors. He said so himself.”
4
How silly this Senate trial has become. It's deja vu all over again, reprising the silliness of the Brett Kavanaugh hearing.
In this version of the (melo)drama, playing the role of the surprise witness, we have John Bolton instead of Christine Ford. Playing the role of the flaky senator, we have (fellow Mormon) Mitt Romney instead of the eponymous Jeff Flake.
Many of the rest of the cast and supporting characters are still around from the previous drama. Which are villains and which are heroes depends on your political affiliation. Facts and justice play no role -- it's politics that has top billing.
How many acts does this play have? I'm tired of it already, and it seemed like the curtain would come down in a couple of days.
But now it seems that more poor players will be called as witnesses to strut and fret their hour upon the stage before they are heard no more. Even though this will end up being a tale told by an [intellectually challenged person], full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
7
@John Smithson Au Contraire! As new witnesses tell the truth more and more senators will see they have been deceived by the WH. Once they have been freed from the grip on them a landslide will result in the 2/3 vote needed for conviction and removal. Dreams for removal will be answered. Ler's pray for that.
4
If this SCRAMBLE isn't a clear and present case of the guilty trying to hide the evidence, I don't know what is. To fight so god-awful hard to SURPRESS evidence sends red flags and even a Republican should see this for what it really is. If I were a Republic (which I am not, thank God) I would be suspicious of my own party, embarrassed by my own president on so many levels, and ashamed of these mealy-mouse men who are too afraid of losing their jobs to follow the laws that they themselves where hired to uphold. This country has officially gone to the DOGS.
124
@Dinelj A couple of months ago, Speaker Pelosi set a trap, and the Republicans continue to put themselves into it. She knew that the Senate would never vote to convict. She also knew that the Republicans would continue to be their own worst enemies. In this instance, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Yes, Bolton's testimony would be highly problematic for them, but their failure to allow witnesses will be worse. The facts will come out, and with a large majority of the electorate favoring transparency, the Republicans refusal to call witnesses will further erode their credibility and ability to keep the Senate and the Presidency in November. The voters have had enough of this kind of nonsense. Speaker Pelosi is waiting for the Republicans, who now have one foot in her trap, to put both feet in. Yes, Speaker Pelosi says she wants witnesses, but she has one hand behind her back and her fingers are crossed.
4
And we citizens are assigned to clean up after them.
1
The New York Times needs to get its story straight on what John Bolton’s draft manuscript says. The story keeps changing,
On Sunday, the Times reported that Trump told Bolton "he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.” On the same day, it reported Trump told Bolton “he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Hillary Clinton in Ukraine, referencing unfounded theories and other assertions that Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer, had promoted about any Ukrainian efforts to damage Mr. Trump politically.”
But Monday, the Times reported that “Bolton wrote that the president told him — directly — in a conversation last August that the aid was being held to squeeze Ukraine into pursuing the investigations.”
And on Tuesday, it published an opinion piece that asserted the manuscript indicates "the president unequivocally conditioned the release of foreign assistance to Ukraine on whether its government would investigate Democrats, including Joe and Hunter Biden, and furnish politically damaging information about them.”
Suspiciously, none of the articles directly quotes the unpublished manuscript. If the manuscript provided smoking gun evidence, we would see direct quotes.
1
In all the despair that this causes, I like looking to what the future could hold for us instead. Just as important as voting in ethical leadership, is understanding endless growth may actually be hurting our economy—and our planet. Please consider the work of economist Kate Raworth, who makes a compelling case for “doughnut economics”: an alternative way to look at the economic systems ruling our societies and imagine a sustainable future for all. Can’t wait for President Sanders to bring her influence into our national perspective. ::closing my eyes for some SelfCare and a delightful deep breath:: Join me for a moment in knowing we’ll get through this.
2
"The Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued that any action to aid re-election could be considered in the nation’s interest and therefore could not be impeachable."
That is a remarkable and remarkably worrisome argument. Dershowitz claims here that a president may do anything at all in order to get elected, including extorting other nations into helping him cheat in elections--and Congress may impeach a president for none of it no matter how heinous the president's actions are. No amount of jeopardy to national security would qualify. No outright criminal actions would qualify. No obstruction or abuse of power would qualify. Once again it seems as if their argument is really just the same one all over again, namely, the president is a king.
6
Dear Trump Republicans,
You believe in conspiracy theories. That is what your high-priced lawyers are arguing in front of the Senate impeachment trial. They may speak in grammatically correct English, and have Ivy League degrees, but that does not make their "alternative facts" Orwellian arguments any more valid or plausible.
My Fellow Americans, use your common sense. And the brain that God gave you. Think!
A democratic republic depends upon an engaged citizenry. A people who actively participate in our self-governance.
Or, alternatively, just tell Benjamin Franklin, regarding our American republic, that we failed upon the test of "if we can keep it."
The choice is yours, my fellow Americans.
6
@Tom W, in response to @Prof B, 3 hours ago. I'd note that I disagree fundamentally with the “crux” you state:
"the matter is not the credentials of the two gentlemen... [but] the character and behavior of the client they have chosen to defend"
as I think any American with legal understanding should. For if a client's perceived “character and behavior” are the ultimate determinant of whether they should be adequately defended, our adversarial system would collapse.
Perhaps, like many in his day, you believe that John Adams, defense counsel for the British following the Boston Massacre, should not have served in that role? But writers of history note—e.g., see David McCullough’s 2001 biography, p. 65—Adams felt compelled, based on his conviction that a fair trial required adequate counsel, to defend the soldiers accused of murder when others of his profession refused. He did this despite potential risk to reputation, a risk that proved real and impactful thereafter. (History has been kinder to Adams than his contemoraries.) Now, Professor Dershowitz is experiencing a similar risk, and is laudable for acting on principle (however much his client might deserve disgust).
See my other entries for the argument that NYT's repeated representations of members of the defense team as "legal celebrities" and "TV experience[d]" are intellectually dishonest, and so unbecoming of esteemed journalists—unless appearing as a clearly labeled piece of opinion (see Lehrer's rules).
1
Dear Chief Justice Roberts,
I have a great deal of respect for you and your office. Per the Constitution, you "preside" over an impeachment trial.
Some citizens have suggested that you are nothing but a "potted plant" in President Trump's impeachment trial. I initially rejected that claim. But your performance as a passive bystander suggests that you are indeed nothing but a potted plant, sitting at the dais of the United States Senate.
Please do your job, John Roberts.
4
This is what corruption in our government looks like.
7
Excuse me? Really? “Any action to aid re-election could be considered in the nation’s interest”.
This is unconstitutional - albeit anti constitutional. It expresses disdain for the democratic process. It disenfranchises all American voters who do not support/did not vote for/do not plan to vote for the current President.
Another example of dereliction of the oath of office - as if another blatant example was needed. L’état c’est moi indeed.
Senators you must now act as if survival of the founding principles of our Republic depend on you.
4
republicans are running roughshod over the United States, like a stampede of wild horses: Lies all the time, a couple of news networks devoted to the most heinous, deceitful propaganda, deregulation to harm us, trying to get rid of our social safety nets, so that the fabulously wealthy can get even more tax cuts, including the multi-millionaire politicians, of course; climate change is hysterically funny to them, the environment is also a joke, sick, poor, elderly people, women, children, and minorities are to be crushed, disenfranchised, and marginalized, our laws and our Constitution, they spit on, all monies are funneled to billionaire corporate oligarchs who pay off, kickback, bribe, or "donate" to these corrupt, traitorous, treacherous politicians, and now, when the head criminal honcho, trump, practices bribery and extortion, and has already committed treason, and The House impeaches him, the corrupt and filthy Senate seeks to cover up the truth, insult and intimidate those who have got the goods on the foul criminal, and bar all witnesses, resulting in an acquittal. You put all this together, and what you have is FASCISM. We are gone, Folks. We are done. If this cover up is allowed, abandon all hope all ye who enter here. Democracy, decency, fairness, morality, integrity, and honor are dead as far as the republican party is concerned. And since they are in charge here, they can push their Fascism and dictatorial agenda, and it seems no one can stop it.
2
Sen. Kennedy (R-LA) asked, "What did Hunter Biden do for the money?"
I ask, "What did Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump do for the money?"
---
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
8
In other words, Alan Dershowitz's mantra is that the Constitution is in fact a suicide pact.
3
The Republican "Witness Block" literally SCREAMS
"Coverup!" It would be embarrassing if it weren't so blatant.
dtrumb may have found his Roy Coen in William Barr, but what the Dems need is a Republican 'Jimmy Stewart'. A patriot able to cut through their camouflage to the clear fact that if dtrump were innocent he would welcome a non-partisan investigation. Clearly he has as much to hide as he does to be accountable for. He is an archetypical despot. America may have its faults, but we did nothing to deserve this insipid scoundrel.
2
Dear Republican Senators,
You have two choices:
1. Vote to allow witnesses and documents; or
2. Vote to convict President Trump on Obstruction of Congress.
Anything else is a violation of your oath of office to uphold the Constitution and of your oath regarding impartial justice the impeachment trial.
3
@MidtownATL "2. Vote to convict President Trump on Obstruction of Congress."
that would still be violating an oath as without witnesses how does one have a fair trial, guilty or innocent?
to do option 2 would be to assume guilt without a fair trial (even though i think hes as guilty as they come)
@Ashley
Mr. Trump (and the Republican Senators) have blocked relevant witnesses from testifying. That is obstruction of Congress, by definition.
I want to hear all the witnesses, and judge the guilt or innocence of Mr. Trump based on those facts.
2
It is worth noting that the president's lawyers are passing on information that we all now know is untrue. Surely they, too, by now know it is untrue. For example, they have said the Ukrainians did not know that the president had withheld the desperately needed military aid. The Ukrainians themselves have said that they knew the aid had been stopped. Even lawyers are not permitted to lie, no? And if they do so wouldn't they be disbarred?
3
Quick question:
Why would the President pay his personal lawyer to do work that the federal government (taxpayers) would pay for?
1
Now that Sen. McConnell and his GOP Senate colleagues have been hoodwinked by the president and his stand-ins, the revelation of Amb. Bolton as published in the New York Times has caught them up short. They seem unsure. They want to keep the wagons circled around the White House and the president. But we fellow citizens and voters have a right to know what our president and his advisers have done and are doing. If, as many have already said, he is innocent of any wrong doing, then why are he and his supporters so adamant that the Senate call no witnesses and subpoena no documents? Why are his defenders in the Senate presenting arguments that tell us even if he committed the acts that the House impeachment managers have stated in their presentations, they are not impeachable acts? In other words, he cannot be impeached. These do not seem to be the arguments supporting an innocent man. They seem to be efforts to deny us more information about what went on in the White House with the president before, during, and after the July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian president Zelensky. Are we fools? Are we to be fooled? I don’t think so and Bolton is the man to tell us why.
3
It would be interesting to see Trump’s defense team watching “The Godfather”:
“This movie doesn’t make any sense. Nobody did anything wrong !!”.
3
The trump lawyers raised Steele dossier. Wasn’t this agent hired by ted Cruz to get dirt on candidate Trump? And later outsourced by Hillary campaign?
So they should really be asking Ted Cruz.
1
Chief Justice John Roberts must be incredibly bored, reading these written questions from the Senators.
He presides over this Impeachment Trial, according the the U.S. Constitution. He could interject his own voice, and his desire for fact witnesses, documents, and so forth at any time that he wishes to cut to the chase and move this trial forward, on behalf of the American people.
What say you, Chief Justice John Roberts?
2
None of this happens in a vacuum. After Watergate, there a total of 48 criminal convictions. Corruption is contagious. This Ukraine dirt touches many people. Of course republicans want this over fast. They don't want to go to jail!
Dershowitz just declared the perpetual rule of King Donald the First.
2
This column is hidden away even as the topic is of immediate relevance, NYT moderators!
This president is forcing presidential power like no other, so they threaten John Bolton publicly saying he cannot publish the book it has classified information.
Time for the networks to get hold of John Bolton and get him on cavers. Forget subpoena and witness. No time to waste, whoever does that saves this country from an authoritarian president who uses transactions and upends policies years in the making. While our earth burns.
2
Latest defense: "Yeah, he did it. So what?"
1
The famous cry Republicans will always be remembered for: "Block the Witnesses!"
1
Dear Trump Republicans,
You are on the wrong side of history. And you know it. And you know that President Trump is guilty of everything for which he is accused of doing. And you just don't care.
You have one last chance to get on the right side of history. What will your children and your grandchildren think? How will future historians judge you? What will your epitaph say, when you leave this earth?
3
Am I hearing and reading correctly that the President’s legal team has pronounced that a President cannot be impeached by Congress? Am I to understand that a President can do anything with impunity?
Does that mean that a President can sit in the White House and perform none of the Presidential obligations (e.g., signing bills into law, dealing with foreign relations, sending emergency aid to disaster-hit US states and territories, etc.) and Congress is impotent to do anything about it? If the resident of the WH cannot perform the duties of the President, or performs them against national interests, is Congress not able to impeach?
The whole reason impeachment is in the Constitution is to provide Congress with a means of countering the Executive branch. The President’s argument on this point is a slap in the face of the Constitution and the country’s founders.
4
@Inkspot.
It does seem that the president’s lawyers sometimes seem to not only contradict one another and the facts established by the house impeachment committee hearings — at times they appear to be at odds with common sense, reality and the U.S. Constitution.
1
@inkspot: The US Federal Government has a board of directors in the form of Congress, a services and production organization headed by a chief executive, and a legal division to interpret and enforce contracts. It is a corporation that has coercive powers by consent of the people.
@Steve Bolger what a strange take. all branches of government are equal, unlike your interpretation.
Trump is a walking talking impeachable offense. Forget policies or politics. The division he sows within our country on a daily basis is cause enough to remove him because he acts not in the national interest but only self interest. He has demonstrably failed to uphold his oath of office on numerous fronts and should be removed by the Senate. Nixon had enough shame to step aside but with GOP and right wing scare media enablers we're at a possible stalemate. Only when Trump is gone can our nation begin to heal divisions and begin a return to normalcy, a normalcy that has currently been abandoned by the Republican party.
3
@AJ: One can easily tell how shallow Trump is from his void of sense of shame.
1
So many people have misunderstood his instructions and his orders. That’s why he has to keep firing them!
Give Trump a chance to clear his name!
Call him to testify in his own defense!
No more “he said,” “he said.”
Let Trump “tell it like it is!”
He wouldn’t lie under oath! Would he?
3
@JMT: Trump was mute under oath to Mueller's written interrogatories. If he refuses to answer questions in the Senate, he has to state that he does so to avoid incriminating himself.
Do we grow bananas in this country? Surely the GOP has been busily planting a crop ever since Trump turned their party into his own corrupt plantation.
5
you may hope that the names of these lawyers Never will be forgotten
2
Dear Republican Senators,
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." - Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
- You must call fact witnesses (Bolton, Mulvaney, et. al)
- You must subpoena relevant documents.
Do your job!
We, the American voters in each state, are paying attention.
3
May the Farce be with you! Seriously, why does the prevailing US political regime insist upon this pathetic self-humiliation in front of the entire world?
2
@Matt: It is called soul-searching. Now and then there are epidemics of it, and something happens.
What if Trump ordered the assassination of Qassem Soleimani to appease John Bolton?
The White House had the draft of Bolton’s book containing Bolton’s allegations BEFORE the attack took place.
Trump said there was evidence of an imminent attack. Then he said “it doesn’t really matter” when pressed.
So if that’s the case then the blood of all the people that died in Soleimani’s funeral or died in the plane crash is on Trump’s hands.
Just to please John Bolton.
5
@Milton Friedman: Trump surely believes that, if he can lay Iran prostrate before America, he'll probably win by a landslide. Several dozen researchers and graduate students flying to 10 Canadian universities died in that plane crash. If you were Iran, would you take the blame for shooting down a civilian airliner squawking a transponder, or claim that your air defense system had been hacked?
Trump's backers in the Senate assert that there are no constitutional limitations to how US presidents use power. There are no holds barred to what can be done to preclude an Iranian nuclear bomb.
@Milton Friedman
Other than world's worse dictators, when have you ever seen Trump do any thing to please anyone? Least of all, people who work for him?
G.O.P. Leaders Scramble to Corral Votes to Block Witnesses
Block Leaders Vote to Scramble to Corral. G.O.P. Witnesses
Ending Opening Arguments, Trump’s
Defense Team Discounts Bolton
Bolton Opening. Defense Team
Discounts Trump’s Ending Arguments
1
The democratic principles that this country was originally founded upon are basically dead. The Republicans are not even attempting to pretend to proceed with any kind of objectivity or deference to the U.S. Constitution or the American people. There is now absolutely nothing that distinguishes the U.S. government from other dictatorships like North Korea or Russia... except for the bloodshed. But give it some more time, and I suspect the chaos in Washington will turn bloody too.
5
I don't have much faith that the Republican senators experiencing "anger and anxiety" over ignoring what Bolton and other witnesses would say will ultimately be able to find their courage. Once you've marched in lockstep this far, turning away seems more and more like something that could only happen in another lifetime or reality. Such is the nature of cults, and Trump's legal arguments and ardent supporters are already far away in their own reality.
Being held hostage in a series of meetings with likeminded people concerned about their reelections, it is easy for the senators to ignore this most recent impingement on their conscience and continue keeping their hands over their ears. If they spent more time talking with their voters and away from Mitch McConnell's smirking contempt for democracy, they might reach the same conclusion that 75% of the country has done, and realize the importance of calling witnesses.
As it stands, history will not be kind to these men and women. We have the facts plainly available from dozens of sources, vs. Trump's pathetic persecution complex and "deep state" hysteria. Anyone who can look at Trump's words and actions, over decades, and sincerely believe that his intentions were to "combat corruption in Ukraine" is wilfully ignorant of the man's character. Unfortunately we have entire industries and many serious-looking men working tirelessly to rebrand ignorance, cognitive dissonance and servile obedience as loyalty and patriotism.
4
The Catholic Church was also hoping to end the broadcast of their sins to the public and judicial systems.
1
Two fundamental errors that make every trial attorney cringe and brand journalists as unfit to cover trial proceedings:
1. The openings of both parties are STATEMENTS, not ARGUMENTS. That's why Schiff was methodical and not strident. ARGUMENTS come at the end and are indeed strident.
2. You never give top billing to evidence you don't have, like Bolton. You always lead with what you do have, which is quite a bit, and quite persuasive. Emphasizing what you don't have calls attention to the weaknesses of your case.
There is no excuse for any newspaper not to know the basics. The Times should consult with a capable trial attorney so their reporting on this case benefits from fundamental understanding.
2
I listen to Trump's lawyers argue that people should take timely issues to courts from the viewpoint of defendant in a decade old case that has yet to have a hearing on the remaining issue of a motion to dismiss in a court of competent jurisdiction. It took that whole decade for that crooked judge to decide that her court did not in fact have jurisdiction of the matter at issue. The contract at issue also has an arbitration clause that directed the plaintiff to take that route by a specified time that is yet to be yet to be adjudicated in another court.
One has to wonder what Republicans are hoping to gain by protecting a criminal in the White House.
Why not hear from witnesses if it helps to protect the country.
If Trump has nothing to hide, why stop the investigation?
4
Imagine… politically correct zealots masquerading as saviors of democracy while speculating on relevancy. If not so sad it would be comical watching our politically correct wunderkinds trying to establish and satisfy their ideological whims with lies, deceit and innuendo.
Imagine… a peek into John Bolton’s moral conscious via reminiscences alias manuscript aka the Bolton revaluations aka a democratic charade, or suspecting John may have ‘mischaracterized’ what he thinks he heard during a hush-hush Presidential confidential aka secret conference call with a foreign President.
Imagine…wondering what book publisher or fledgling scribbler with access to political secrets aka democratic whistleblower wouldn’t drool over the prospects and notions of disgruntled zealots hyping or boosting possible near term tell-all book sales in their quest to destroy the whims of We the People.
Imagine… character assassination, or the marvels of creative thought or pithy writing gone the way of conniving hustlers like Chuck Schumer concocting a woebegone tale to stifle any questions regarding the ‘Biden five’s’ chicanery; suggesting unsavory business dealings between Trump’s children and Chinese demigods to mask Chuck’s cunning hatred.
1
"Headline Correction: "Republicans Scramble to Obstruct Justice and Rig 2020 Election""
From the comments.....
I wouldn't worry, after all according to Don Lemon Wajahit Ali and Rick Wilson Trump voters are too stupid to pull the correct lever in an election anyway.
I personally want to thank Don Lemon and his all star panel for single handedly sewing up the 2020 election for Donald Trump (see: Don Lemon and above laughing at Trump voters and the RNC commercial replaying that idiocy to spur Trump voters to the polls)
Boy, the Democrats (and their CNN/media accomplices) really know how to shoot themselves in the foot.
1
Where is country first? The answer?The spineless Senate Republicans should ask the whistle blower and the other witnesses who risked their careers and paid exorbitant legal fees to present their cases.
2
Dear Republican Senators,
You have two choices:
1. Vote to allow witnesses and documents; or
2. Vote to convict President Trump on Obstruction of Congress.
Anything else is a violation of your oath of office to uphold the Constitution and of your oath regarding impartial justice the impeachment trial.
4
So Trump who has zero patience and the wheels are off the bus who was waiting for the existing president of Ukraine to call for investigations into the Bidens only to have this so called ally loose his re-election bid and didn’t want Giuliani to take the necessary time to do his magic jump the gun due to Biden poll numbers and then strong arm the new president and it’s alright with the rest of us. Hold on tight because the genie has been sprung we are all at the mercy to the dubious highest bidder, and Trump will go down in history as a tarnished impeached president just like his university, his wine and his steaks.
3
Friday: Trump is acquitted.
Saturday: Trump suspends the upcoming election and declares Martial Law.
It can’t happen here.
Until it can.
4
Shame on every single Republican! As a Black woman, I think of the millions of Black/Brown and poor White men rotting in jail for weed and less. They surely would have loved to have had such a kangaroo court.
7
I just wrote the WH an email supporting the immediate arrest of John Bolton for war crimes.
Smear, impugn, mislead, lie. It's the Trump way, the Roy Cohn way before, and anyone who is near Trump must afopt his methods.
3
There will be no witnesses. The Democrats want only one—John Bolton—, but allowing one means opening the floodgates to a host of other witnesses whose testimony is unpredictable and might even be embarrassing to both sides. Having gone to the brink and peered over the edge, both sides will realize that they prefer not to go there at all because, as self-interested politicians, they really have a lot in common—the desire to keep their rampant mutual corruption a secret from the American people.
4
@Edward: The most dishonest people imaginable will put everyone else on trial for their own crimes. The US Senate has become a millstone that will drown the Union in a swamp.
No further witnesses need to be called because, assuming merely for the sake of argument that all allegations of fact by the House were correct (quod non), there was no "abuse of power".
The President did not usurp power by exercising a power he does not have, so that the only question is whether there was an appropriate predicate for his use of executive power. The President is the chief law enforcement officer can, in general, ask a foreign government to investigate an American citizen. The President can also withhold foreign aid as leverage to get a foreign government to act in a certain manner. This is common practice (quoting Mulvaney, "Get over it.").
An"abuse of power" could only exist if there were no appropriate predicate for the exercise of executive power. The Biden/Burisma matter stinks to high heaven and deserves investigation. This is also the case with Ukraine's attempts to meddle in the 2016 election.
The core accusations in the House impeachment, therefore, have no merit. Adam Schiff and the Democrats in the House have abused the impeachment process and will hopefully get their comeuppance in November 2020.
2
@Christopher Arend Pseudo potus was not asking for an investigation. He was asking, through his private attorney, for the Announcement of an investigation for the purpose of making his potential opponent look bad. There is much to do about nothing re: Biden/Burisma except perhaps the dubious judgement of it's board in hiring practices. You are blowing, knowingly or not, a bunch of smoke & it stinks! VOTE BLUE
1
The removal of Trump is not 'merely reversing an election' because all satisfied impeachments do that. What this one will do is establish for all following presidents that they are clearly not above the law, and that when their people are subpoena'ed, they will respond honorably.
We the people are counting on you, US Senate.
2
At what price victory? McConnell may very well win this battle but the price will be the loss of the war; the loss of the presidency, the loss of the senate, and possibly, the end of the Republican Party.
1
@Greg: After the next election, the Republicans will still retain enough seats to shut down all judicial appoints as they did to Obama.
Some of these comments mention Mr. Trump’s upcoming State of the Union Address. I’ve listened carefully to Inagural and SOTU addresses for sixty years.
I was an elementary school student when, after taking the presidential oath of office, a brilliant young orator from Massachusetts encouraged me to, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Those two simple imperative statements guided me through my military service, my tour of duty in the Peace Corps and my years of teaching high school.
Major presidential speeches to the nation are of great importance. They bind the American people. They provide us hope and direction.
I’m very sorry to admit that I have been unable to listen to an entire address delivered by our current president. None of what I hope to hear — inspration, vision, humility, confidence, commitment — is there.
Although “failure as an orator” is certainly not an impeachable offense, I do long for the day when a man or woman, very different in character from President Trump, delivers their first Inaugural Address.
For me, that day cannot come too soon.
6
@Tom W Trump is a functionally illiterate baby who can't tell right from wrong.
1
Witnesses? How can this not happen and not just Bolton, but most certainly Pompeo, Giuliani, and Mulvaney as well. Anything less and the entire impeachment process will have been for naught, a travesty that defies any notion of a fair and impartial process by the Congress.
Had Trump any genuine concerns about corruption regarding Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Burisma in Ukraine he could have, in the full light of day with full public disclosure, set in motion an genuine investigation using the full force of the FBI and the DOJ.
3
The Republicans are in lockstep and will be so through the election, barring a political earthquake. Meanwhile the Democrats on the primary trail assault each other over who's got the loftiest ideals. We saw this movie in 2016.
2
If the Trumpers in the Senate refuse to hear witnesses, choose to ignore the evidence and don't impeach Trump, the Democrats should put forth a motion to remove Bill Clinton's impeachment. If there is nothing that "rises to the level of impeachment" for Trump then there was no reason to impeach Bill Clinton.
Mitch McConnell's GOP Senate should be called "The Enron Senate."
Remember the downfall of the much heralded Enron corporation? It's collapse too started with a whistleblower who was definitely not welcomed by the Enron executives.
Interestingly, Enron had one of the best written code of corporate ethics, which was touted as a model for corporate ethics. Meanwhile, the Enron executives were engaging in all kinds of skulduggery and lies that ended up with some of these unscrupulous executives convicted and jailed.
So I was thinking, like Enron, the United States has a very well thought-out and written Constitution as a guide for the structure and conduct of our democratic government.
Like Enron, our current GOP president, his cabinet, and the top GOP leader in the Senate have not only chosen to disregard the spirit and letter of the law in our Constitution, they have willfully chosen to abuse it, protecting a president who is not president of all the people--doesn't even try to be--and abuses his presidential power to serve himself and obstructs the designated power of Congress to investigate wrongdoing.
This Senate impeachment trial of President Trump is America's fork in the road. It is not Mitch McConnell's choice; he already made his choice clear. It is each GOP senator's choice which road to take:
the road that honors the Constitution and our democracy; or
the road that conducts a sham trial in the Senate that does not even allow a key witness to testify
1
And now, some very high profile, very credible people, who were officially VERY close to the President ,are contradicting the claims of his defense, and Republicans are trying to figure out how to PREVENT them from testifying. That's obscene, actually. Vote out ALL Republicans.
2
I'm amused by some people who posit that Justice John Roberts might intervene in the impeachment trial in some way to make it a fair trial. (For instance, he could be the fourth vote for witnesses if only three Republicans cross over). Contrary to what he claims, we all know the court is totally partisan.
2
If John Bolton is barred by Republicans from testifying and telling the truth then, to me, the Trump administration and the Senate Republicans are doing exactly what mobsters do. They will resort to anything in order to protect Trump, The Godfather. And Trump, himself, will do everything both within and outside his authority to distract and keep the truth from the American people. If there were no problems, then the truth could not hurt him. On the other hand, though........
1
The American People of ALL Political Parties deserve to know the truth... Bolton and possibly others must be called as witnesses. If the Republican Senate blocks or prevents Bolton from testifying, they will be guilty... of OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE. The President and The Members of the Senate are elected to SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. If Bolton is prevented from testifying, this will be a travesty... a crime that the American People will never forget. It will be time to take to the streets... and EVERY Senator that prevents the American People of knowing the facts should be removed from office and if possible prosecuted.
1
Here's a question to ask the Republican Senators today: So it's ok for a President Biden to ask any and all nations to obtain and reveal Trump's tax returns given the supposition he committed a related crime?
1
I have zero belief in the "moderates" demanding that witnesses be called. We have seen the "moderate" Republican head-fake before. They will make a big stir about how they are really, really conflicted, but in the end they will circle their wagons around Trump.
2
Witnesses will not change the outcome of the impeachment. The only reason the Dems want them is to try to persuade enough undecideds to reject Trump in November.
2
It's fitting the trial now goes into its show and tell phase. CJ Roberts reads the phonics cards prepared and submitted by the boys and girls of the Senate. That's about the level of intelligence (meaning brain power, not the agencies) I expect out of this group.
GOP senators Collins, Murkowski, and Romney make brave and bold noises about calling witnesses. First hand witness John Bolton available for the asking. McConnell signals he does not have the Republican senators to block witness testimony.
Now perhaps a trial.
Breaking news. Collins, Murkowski, and Romney wilt. Won't ask for witness testimony. Now come Collins, Murkowski, and Romney as first GOP questioners.
Selling out your country so McConnell will let you go first.
1
The GOP Senators have proven to be a bunch of chumps, totally in thrall to a President who has usurp all their oversight powers. I know, and the House has known that no amount of evidence or egregious revelations of guilt would get this pack of sycophants to remove Trump from office. However, to outright acquit him after refusing to consider the full evidence and the fact that evidence that the House could not provide was due to Trump's obstruction--for which he is charged would be an enormous mistake and breach of trust. This impeachment was never about undoing the results of an election...what a childish assertion! It's about oversight of an elected official who flagrantly disregards laws and norms, was attempting to assure his own re-election no matter what it took, and will continue to do so unless some kind of restriction is placed upon him by the Article I power of Congress. So if they can't remove him, don't acquit either. Rebuke, Censure, Warn and put him on notice that he is on probation that this sort of behavior which he has engaged in since before he was even elected will turn him out of office sooner rather than later.
1
The GOP sure is afraid to call witnesses.
Doesn't say much for their defense of Trump's innocence.
I say let the Republicans wrap this thing up so that Bernie, Elizabeth, and Amy can get back out on the trail. And the Republicans can be blamed for a massive cover up!
1
@CD and then a future tyrant will know that he has nothing to fear, as the government has no checks or balances on the presidency.
putting politics above country is plain stupid. their roles as senators are far more important than campaigning for a primary that will likely have the DNC tipping the scale yet again for a corporate shill.
Mitch McConnell ...worked to herd his rank and file in line behind ending the trial without witnesses.
“We’re trying to get everyone on the same page,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.
Collusion is not easy. A good cover-up takes effort, commitment and maybe threats.
Somehow the GOP leaders must instill enough fear into the undecided Senators.
Fear of what? Getting a disparaging tweet? Losing the Trump base? and their job?
On the other hand, what about losing credibility? Integrity? Trustworthiness?
It's a conundrum for anyone with morals.
If this trial ends without witnesses, I believe any GOP Senator in a purple state who colluded with Mitch/Trump has said goodbye to re-election.
People are sick of this obvious grift.
Plus, post Nov. 2020, there is going to be a whole lot more purple replacing the red and blue replacing the purple.
A smart politician doesn't go down with a sinking ship.
2
"Impeachment 'is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,' Mr. Sekulow said."
Gee wow if only there was a way that we could get evidence on the record. If only there was a way we could have the source of the manuscript testify under oath about what happened.
If only.
That is, I mean, if you are actually at all interested in learning what happened.
The soundbite of Joni Ernst gleefully wondering how this was going to affect Biden's chances of securing the nomination, set next to the soundbite of Kevin McCarthy saying how they wanted the Benghazi investigations to cast Hillary in a bad light and to hurt her presidential chances, make it clear that the GOP will stop at nothing to win. This impeachment trial is giving them the time to destroy an innocent man's reputation, which is all trump wanted from Ukraine. The appearance of wrong doing. With Barr and Giuliani jet-setting the globe for the past year looking for dirt on Biden, you can bet your bottom dollar that if they had found anything it would be on loop on Fox 24/7
All the GOP wants is the impression of wrongdoing that they can hammer with a cudgel. While the in-our-face corruption of the 45 administration goes undeterred by these people.
The latest GOP talking point is, they want to get back to senate business. Since the only thing that involves, is McConnell pushing through unqualified Federal Judges that have never even tried a case, this should worry us all. McConnell has sat on (As of November) nearly 400 bills without putting them forward for a vote.
Our constitution has been under attack since November 9, 2016. Allowing this sham senate trial without witnesses, may well be the end of it.
3
Trump has been living an entitled life rife with extorted privilege. The rest of the group is only rank-and-filing as this is a re-election year with everything to lose. The dog and pony show called an impeachment hearing is everything but fair and just, if anything, it displays to the world, that those with power and money can continue to extort what ever they want from those who think we live in an age of choice. America is for sale, freedom is a guise, and the US is just as corrupt as many other nations. We just don’t want to see it.
1
If we accept the White House defense team premise that the Ukrainian military aid and WH meeting were only related to a national concern about corruption, then where is the documentation from the White House that shows they (Trump admin) tried to address this in a broader sense than just about Hunter Biden? If the only mention of corruption is related to Hunter Biden's participation on the Burisma Board of Directors, then it smells of an extortion to get Zelensky to publicly announce an investigation solely for planting a false flag to use in the 2020 election. I have not seen any evidence to date that corruption in Ukraine was an issue before the spring of 2019 when Joe Biden emerged as the most viable Democratic candidate to beat Trump.
The United States of America no longer has a legitimate government.
3
If Trump did nothing wrong and it was "a perfect phone call" then bring on Bolton.
Surely Trump's perfect legal team can argue Bolton's perfect notes and perfect timeline into nothingness.
Trump does not possess the courage or presence of mind to be a positive witness in his own defense!
He is a paper tiger. A bully and a scared little boy who has overspent other people's money his entire life.
Here we have Bolton. The wildcard Trump cannot control.
The GOP must let him speak at their peril. If they don't, it's at their peril.
The Trump defense team has the unenviable job of disputing his excellent account of what happened.
Those lawyers are scared to death of Bolton. He doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Put on your best grown up faces. It won't help but try it anyway.
Bolton is the iron hand in the iron glove.
1
Aw, come on Republicans. If you won't call any other witness, at least call Trump! He's your Ace Card! HE can end this trial in a New York minute!
After all, in hundreds of Tweets and verbal statements, Trump has already assured us he did "nothing wrong!" All you need to do is enter that testimony in the record, and your work will be done!
Come on, Republicans! It's like picking a sure winner!
Do we need to put this in a memo?
2
The more Trump tweets insults about Bolton, the more I want to hear him.
1
These guys “perform” as if they were assigned by the public defenders office. Then again, there is no better strategy than having kangaroos defend you in a kangaroo court...brilliant!
1
Two things we know for certain:
1) The Republicans will never vote to convict Trump no matter what, and
2) Alan Dershowitz would be well advised to never set foot on Martha's Vineyard again.
2
In the film “Forbidden Planet”, Robbie the Robot uttered “Danger, Danger, Danger” while flailing his arms, when Morbius’ supercharged id attacked the spaceship after it landed. When Mr Seculow uttered “Danger, Danger, Danger” he forgot to flail his arms, and his warning was wrong - it should have been for Trump’s id, not for the House Managers’ attempt to save democracy.
The U.S is within a hair of becoming an authoritarian state as far as I'm concerned. If the GOP won't allow witnesses then what have you, really?
1
Impeachment “is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” Mr. Sekulow said. “That is politics, unfortunately. Hamilton put impeachment in the hands of this body, the Senate, precisely and specifically to be above that fray.”
If you want to ensure that this is NOT a game of "unsourced manuscripts", place the author under oath!
The GOP are the ones playing games here!
Democracy and the rule of law is dead. Why even bother voting if we don't have a say?
And they should discount Bolton! A paper prints a story based on an anonymous source, pertaining to a conversation with different versions and no witnesses, that is not illegal, and we’re going to remove a President over that? OR, we’re going to demand the President’s closest advisors reveal conversations that were not illegal, even if they took place?
This started as a bombshell that turned out to be a dud. The Democrats refused to hear from the whistle blower. The Democrats refused to give the President due process. The Democrats refused to acknowledge the rightful place of the Third Branch. The President’s defenders blew the Democrat’s case up in a matter of a few hours and now the Democrats desperately want to continue poisoning the country a little while longer....
It’s the most pathetic event of consequence in this nation’s history. Clowns, being urged on by fools.
2
An impeachment trial without witnesses is what we would expect to see in a third rate failed state run by a corrupt dictator, a banana republic.
The Republican Party is now the Banana Republican Party.
2
Deshowitz's argument (which most constitutional scholars dismiss) says that unless it is a statatory crime, it is not impeachable. That leavers us with this: Bill Clinton was impeached because he lied under oath (a crime - perjury) about having sex with an intern. Trump is impeached for shaking down a foreign leader of an ally by withholding sorely needed military aid in its hot war with Russia to help Trump smear a political opponent and get an edge in the 2020 election - abuse of power. According to Dershowitz, Clinton's conduct is impeachable, Trump's is not. Doesn't this strike you a ridiculous? Both are impeachable. Read Tribe's book - To Impeach a President. Tribe is a Harvard law professor who was Chief Justice John Roberts' constitutional law prof when Roberts was in law school. Anglo-American history is replete with "common law" crimes that were not codified in statutes until much later. The Framers of the Constitution knew what they were talking about. Dershowitz, not so much.
1
If, and only if, the fellow is innocent as he and his cronies allege why don't they allow witnesses to attest to his innocence?
Because he is guilty of all charges and his accomplice cronies know it!!
1
So, as it turns out all those people who have been saying that our government is totally corrupt are correct. The laws apparently are meant for the serfs and white guys with money and lawyers are allowed to do whatever they want. If you got the dough, then you too can hire professional liars who will say anything regardless of any evidence to the contrary. There is no shortage of criminal lawyers, and by the I mean lawyers who are criminals, that will do whatever they need to if you have enough money. Because, they know that the laws are fake and really only meant for the serfs, and not wealthy white guys.
I suppose they like the money, but I suspect they think the coup will be successful and they may get a shot at being an oligarch, if they can survive the coming oligarch wars.
1
Reality Check if im mistaken didnt the lawyers who representing white house swear an oath in order to practice law?. Should al loose there license to practice law if they break that oath.
Senators are not sequestered jury.
So unless they have been playing ostrich they must be aware that John Bolton has corroborated sworn testimony by other staff members of the different agencies that comprise the Executive Office of the President (EOP) - that at POTUS’ direction congressionally authorized aid vital to the survival of a Ukraine not under Putin’s rule would be withheld until that country undertook investigations into a Presidential candidate.
All these witnesses have a professional track record of being trustworthy. None have a documented history of lying or self-dealing.
The opposite behavior by the man who is currently President is extensively documented.
What matters is that the President was intent on using the powers and privileges of the presidency only for his personal benefit. Whether he did or did not bother to consider the effect of his actions on the US’ ability to maintain the delicate balance of world order makes him derelict. Whether Trump directly conveys to the Ukrainian President (or any other foreign agent) that he wants a candidate running against him - while Trump is President - investigated as a condition or he communicates to others to convey this makes him derelict.
Either way his actions work against the best interests of the country. That his scheme was thwarted by patriots in his own branch of government does not erase his derelict actions.
If Republicans choose to not consider the evidence they too are derelict.
20
You’re right. Potentially they all could be witnesses, but so could others who will testify otherwise. It’s a can of worms which neither side really wants to open.
@Former White House Staffer:
Your comments are perhaps the most cogent and thorough I've ever read, on any topic, in the NYT Comments forums.
Absolutely crystal clear, without histrionics, and obviously well-informed by professional experience.
If only there was some way to deliver this, on paper, to every participant in the Senate . . .
Thank you!
[NOTE to NYTIMES Editors: if you fail to annoint this writer's comment as "NYT PICK" you too would be derelict. Indeed, it merits being a top candidate for Comment of The Year, if there were such a prize.]
1
I may well have my history wrong, and my analogies confusing, but maybe Mr. Trump = George IV, & Mr. McConnell = Lord Liverpool? It seems that way to me, and how we allow it I will never know.
2
At its core, this democracy will ultimately fail if the checks and balances originally established by the constitution’s drafters are disregarded based on two-party politics. I do not fault the GOP Senators per se because they have families and careers that they are allowed to prioritize. The fact is that our citizenry have been subjected to two decades of increasingly zero-sum, partisan language first coming from conservative media but now increasingly coming from both sides. Bipartisanship is a dirty word no matter whether you are blue or red. Not Voting party line is only a real option, if your vote isn’t needed. Self-interest for re-election campaigns and the control of campaign finances allows McConnell to turn the screws as needed on people like Collins and her ilk.
Democrats who think a Democratically led Senate would impeach a Democratic President are naive. Would never happen. Same factors would apply. And that fact is a problem, which eventually will lead to the unraveling of this democracy either in our lifetime or sometime down the road.
3
They have families and careers to prioritze? Seriously? Their absolute number one priority is the Constitution of the United States! Their priority is your democracy! But to tubing that their priority is their careers? I find that just gobsmacking. They should be prepared to say to their voters, "this is bigger than you, and bigger thanme, and I have to do the right thing whether you approve or not". Instead, they quake in fear of Donald Trump's tweets. They're self-serving cowards who are prepared to sacrifice your system of government itself, and all for their own careers? That's appalling, shameful, and cowardly.
2
@Eric
I am really sick of this both-sides-ism.
Reagan and Iran / Contra, partisan Impeachment of Clinton, unprecedented partisan Supreme Court interference in the 2000 election, (not unprecedented) lies to justify wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, unprecedented partisan obstruction of Obama, unprecedented partisan obstruction to seating a Justice, fealty to a partisan propaganda network.
Republican down the line.
What Republican did Jimmy Carter go after? Clinton? Obama?
There’s an old line. I didn’t start this fight, but I’m going to finish it.
Democrats need to fight back.
And you better believe that if a Democratic president pulled stunts like this we'd be all over them.
1
John Bolton has ignited a civil war among the Republicans, one that is going to play out in public.
As a liberal Democrat, my reaction is: "have at it guys, and pass the popcorn."
The Republicans will show everybody what underhanded, hypocritical liars they all are.
When your political opponent is busy digging his own political grave, stay out of the way and keep your mouth shut, unless you have a polite way to encourage him or her to work harder and faster.
10
What an amazing travesty. Trial but not witnesses or evidence. A figurehead judge who sits there virtually powerless. Ridiculous attempts to control witness presentation, if at all, by creating blocks of witnesses. A real trial would have a Judge who controlled all proceedings. A Judge who determined whether a witness testimony was relevant or not. A Judge who would not allow attorneys to posture and, in fact, testify rather than question witnesses. As an Attorney for 45 years I am appalled at this circus. The Senate should be ashamed. The Chief Justice should be ashamed. The American public should be ashamed.
8
@Disillusioned: US Courts exist to let lawyers bleed clients with motion practice until they settle.
It shows that there is guilt, and everyone in the Senate are afraid to see what is really going on. Scary.
It's virtually impossible to get someone to do what they know to be the right thing when they have no concern for how it appears to intentionally do wrong and they have a vested interest in doing that wrong.
I suppose that would describe a sociopath but in the case of Senate (and House) Republicans it seems to go even deeper and border on psychosis.
They know it's against all rules of law and logic to deny witnesses in a trial but 99% don't seem to care. Deeply disturbing.
6
Just goes to show how corrupt the Republican Party and Trumpers are.
7
A war to ensure power and control... sad for America.
Headline Correction: "Republicans Scramble to Obstruct Justice and Rig 2020 Election"
14
Part 1 of 2.
Here, for the record, from a less biased perspective—the editors of Wikipedia*— are descriptions of the legal training, credentials, and experience of Professor Dershowitz and Judge Starr:
"Alan Morton Dershowitz (/ˈdɜːrʃəwɪts/; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and academic. He is a scholar of United States constitutional law and criminal law.[1][2] He has also been described as a noted civil libertarian.[1][3] He began his teaching career at Harvard Law School where, in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history. He held the Felix Frankfurter professorship there from 1993[4] until his retirement in December 2013,[5] and has been a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst...
[Dershowitz] ... attended Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal,[12] and graduated first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1962.[4] ... Dershowitz served as a clerk for David L. Bazelon, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ... During the 1963–1964 term, he served as law clerk for the Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg."
__________
*As stated in its General Disclaimer, Wikipedia (WP) makes no claim to accuracy. However, the two articles consulted are of good quality; moreover, the extracts above present information supported by inline citations to sources that can be checked should readers care to do so.
4
@Prof B
When a lawyer or a doctor is sued for MALPRACTICE, it is irrelevant whether that person has properly conducted himself or herself according to the rules of professional conduct 10,000 times in the past. The question is whether, in the PRESENT matter, and ONLY in the present matter, that person has acted with sufficient professional competence and in accordance with accepted professional norms.
Dershowitz is propounding a NOVEL, unsupported, legal theory that a codified law must be violated for impeachment to lie.
The almost unanimous opinion of the bar is that Dershowitz is mistaken. (Yeah, I am a member of the bar.)
1
@Prof B
At this time, the crux of the matter is not the credentials of the two gentlemen you mention, it is the character and behavior of the client they have chosen to defend.
1
@Tom W, it's understandable that you missed the main point of my three posts about Professor Dershowitz and Judge Starr—the NYT only slowly presents substantial responses, so you replied without seeing the critical first response. To be clear—
I had a singular reason for responding to the NYT writers: they grossly misrepresent two erudite men of legal letters, through the use of a disparaging diminutive (“legal celebrities”, see article text). This is a pattern in the NYT reporting on the defense since Saturday past; an earlier example referred to them as unnamed further legal team members with “TV experience”.
In a case where the individual on trial is accused of lacking veracity, it is important that those opposing not play fast and loose with truth, or resort to ad hominem attack (even if subtle). For this reason alone, I posted the qualifications that these two defense team members bring to their duties.
A trial without witnesses makes about as much sense as impeachment without conviction.
9
Apparently, legal maneuvering and obfuscation matter more than the actual truth from corroborating witnesses whether it regards constitutional duties, personal behavior or his finances. The noxious rhetoric from DT's legal team and his supporting cast is total balderdash - the US and the rest of the world see through it too.
5
During the House Intelligence committee hearings several of the republican members pointed out that there was no first hand evidence. Of course they knew Trump was hiding it, heck apparently Devin Nunes was still actively participating in the corrupt process he was denying to our faces during the hearings according to the documents, phone calls and texts if Lev Parnas.
So why is first hand evidence no longer appealing to republicans?
10
There will be great anger whatever Republicans decide to do. But history and future generations will likely be the cruelest judges of those senators who refused to allow witnesses.
8
Senate Republicans and Trump's defense lawyers have thoroughly painted themselves into a corner.
Together, these so-called lawmakers and stewards -- by making fools of themselves arguing nonsense, from "there's no grounds for impeachment" to "Obama should have been impeached -- have actually enhanced Trump's corrupt profile.
If Trump still believes that the electorate will save him at election time, he's [delusively] wrong. Bolton's revelation is too damaging. The overall evidence against Trump is too damaging. And the polls are not helping him.
A Republican vote to prohibit witnesses from testifying in the trial will be the "final nail in the coffin". Congressional Republicans will prove themselves more oafish than we already know they are, and Trump's kingly vision for a second term will be utterly doomed.
Surprised? Not at all. Truth Always Prevails...
5
Is anyone else faulting Pelosi for sitting on the impeachment vote for the few weeks that she did? Didn’t think so.
3
Executive power should live in the lower house of Congress. Having a separate executive branch, whose only check on authority is an upper house with a disproportionate representation of the electorate is unreasonable.
The Senate will likely acquit President Trump not by merit of evidence and testimony - Republicans have made it very clear that facts and reason play no part in their agenda. Their agenda is to make the most politically expedient decision that will solidify the hold that right-wing extremists, white nationalists and would-be fascists have on our democracy.
I am drawn back to Virginia Woolf’s words in Three Guineas the more I consider the future of our country, “The questions that we have to ask and to answer about that procession during this moment of transition are so important that they may well change the lives of men and women forever. For we have to ask ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that procession, or don't we? On what terms shall we join that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the procession of educated men?...Let us never cease from thinking--what is this "civilisation" in which we find ourselves? What are these ceremonies and why should we take part in them? What are these professions and why should we make money out of them? Where in short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of educated men?”
4
Lovely quote for an ugly spectacle.
@Michael Brown:
OUTSTANDING comment!
Senators, in full view of the American public, scrambling to avoid the truth.
Got it.
16
Donald Trump leverages everything. And lies about it. He thinks this country, including our tax money which he probably does not pay into, belongs to him. And lies about it. The Ukraine money was approved by Congress and cleared to go and Trump thought “if I am sending them all this money I need to get something for it”. HE needed to have this corrupt country handle HIS corrupt business. And so it goes.... then he lies about it.
A lot of American people don’t care if he lies, our Congress doesn’t care, the Judiciary prefers he keeps his lies consistent; this is where we are. A Republic, if we can keep it.
11
The GOP has chosen party and power over the Constitution at every turn.
They have bent the truth and twisted reality and as long as I'm drawing oxygen, I will never forget what they have done to this country.
Net effect: enabling the arguably most corrupt, inept and dangerous President in the history of the United States.
They are jeopardizing our nation's standing as a representational democracy for love of money and power.
8
First it was Merrick Garland, legitimately nominated to the Supreme Court by Obama, that McConnell refused to even give a hearing almost 1 year away from the next president being sworn in. Now its McConnell brow beating his republican colleagues into sitting quietly and not asking for eye witness testimony and related documents regarding a presidential impeachment. This is not leadership. Its cowardice.
Republican senators must do their duty to the country and the institution. Not to the corrupt president and senate majority leader lap dog.
7
The truth? The republicans can’t handle the truth.
10
Watch out, republicans! Forever it will be said that you voted against witnesses and documents in a trial where 75% of Americans want witnesses and documents. 75% of us could not be wrong. The voice of the people. Call any republican senators office today!! Here are their DC office phone numbers:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact
7
Senate switchboard
202-224-3121
12
Ha! Pay no attention to the Bolton behind the mustache, Republicans. That'll save your hides, sure it will.
Really, Republicans? You’re going to sacrifice what’s left of your reputations to protect somebody who acts like a mob boss?
4
Repeat after me....banana republic.
8
And...is the Supreme Court really going to put their blessing on the 'No witness' 'No Evidence' trial - in the person of Chief Justice John Glover Roberts Jr. ? Or...will he intercede on behalf of Truth & Justice? Stay tuned...AND Vote 2020.
1
Bolton is a liar. His testimony wouldn't mean anything even if he did testify.
1
How remarkable that Mr. McConnell is so caught up in partisan gamesmanship that thinks that his efforts to block testimony reflect well on him, or on the Republican caucus.
There's a difference between "winning" and doing what is right. If polls show 75% of the country want to see the evidence, and even the Republican firewall in the Senate has cracked, doesn't that tell you something?
Is it possible that stonewalling and running a sham trial is not the right thing to do?
111
@Joe S. You get caught speeding in a school zone going 100 mph; go to court; get the cop thrown out because he was wearing a purple shirt; get the camera footage thrown out because it was shot on HD; get the kid you ran over thrown out cause she was wearing shoes. The GOP case
8
@Joe S. The House chose not to subpoena Bolton. The Senate would set a terrible precedent by interviewing any witnesses—remember, the entire Senate will be shut down for who knows how long if they start interviewing witnesses. And Bolton will not help the removal case—as Ms Bondi showed very clearly, there was good cause to investigate the Biden’s activities in Ukraine. Finally, the GOP might act like the House and give the Dems Bolton but then have Schiff, the whistleblower and the Biden’s show the depth of Democrat depravity. I wonder how Warren and Sanders and Klobuchar will like being kept off the campaign trail for weeks while Biden and his son are center stage?
@Joe S.
Jared Kushner says:
It would be “unfortunate” if the Senate had to hear from witnesses in the trial.
BUT.... Kushner insisted it would ultimately only HELP Mr. Trump’s case.
There you have it America!
Trump's own son in law and savior of the world proclaims "witness would HELP Mr Trump's
case."
Then why, pray tell, is Trump blocking, and now even threatening, key witnesses.
8
Has anyone found any discussion, anywhere, on the current role of the chief presiding officer, Chief Justice John Roberts, in the proceedings?
The silence on him is puzzling.
4
How have we come to the point where U.S. Senators, sworn to be impartial, are rushing to block witnesses that might change the outcome they have decided on - perfectly innocent?
And where are the U.S. Senators who respect their oath, with the courage, integrity and sense of History, to allow witnesses and evidence to lead to the appropriate verdict?
Whether we continue as a Constitutional Democracy depends on those few brave Senators and History will record their names with Honor.
4
They're all afraid they might have to get a real job.
Its looking like lancing all wounds now, in public, in the present Senate trial will be best for Democrats (and Joe Biden). Get it over with. Dems have less to lose, and as you write: McConnell knows it. The GOP, McConnell, and Trump always wager their capacity to inflict pain and mobilize antipathy is too much for anyone, especially a Dem. However, the Dems call their bluff here. Republicans risk a clear and way too obvious demonstration of guilt (even to a MAGA). Senators and House Members will not be able get that stench off before 2021, no matter how any one "passes impartial judgement" at the end of this trial.
1
Oh please, if he’s so innocent why not allow witnesses? Not allowing witnesses is exactly what one would do if they knew how guilty their client was. Also, why not allow the client to testify? That should be good.
6
Because when someone is innocent, they always block witnesses from testifying.
4
The Republican Senators obviously believe that hearing from John Bolton would be worse than the heat they will take by not calling him. They may be right.
1
ignoring the elephant in the room and hoping it goes away doesn't sound like a viable defense. but they are right on one point, this needs to stop now. impeach trump without further delay and get on with fixing the country.
Could anyone explain how these Republican Senators are believing that the Ukraine extortion scheme was the last Trump scandal that will surface before the election date? The man they are supposed to defend was literally trying to trick them by withholding the info about the Boston book. How does that make sense? If there is one thing that everyone should have learned during the last 3 years: the next Trump scandal is already around the corner and will be worse than anything that is already known right now. I would expect that some intelligent people among the Republican Senators learned that too and take a chance to pull the brakes and rescue their reputation and future career.
2
So according to some, Trump actually was convinced Ukraine was corrupt and might misspend our money. How does demanding they announce they were going to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden to get the aid and not mentioning corruption when speaking to Zelensky on the phone fix this problem?
If you did not know the agencies and professionals we employ in the Civil Service had already done the work of determining whether or not enough was being done to fight corruption and everything else they ensure before sending aid and Ukraine had met all standards. It was ready to be sent and would have been had Trump, Mulvaney et al not interceded to stop it. If they believed themselves to be acting properly why did they take so many precautions to hide it?
2
The argument that having witnesses won’t change the acquittal, and therefore reason to acquit by Friday, is as lame as a prolonged trial will keep the Democratic Presidential candidates from campaigning in the the primaries. Senate, do your job.
2
A trial without evidence and witnesses is not a trial, it is a farce.
3
Bolton is willing to testify under oath, under penalty of perjury if he lies. trump is unwilling to testify under oath and is doing his damnedest to prevent anyone with direct knowledge from testifying too. Who is more believable? And yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
3
Is there any real reason to avoid hearing from witnesses?
If the Republicans are right, then there must be witnesses who could support the (looks pretty lame right now) theory that Donald Trump was a corruption crusader who was interested in more than just the Bidens and CrowdStrike. Right? I mean, where are the witnesses who support that? Nothing presented so far. You would think the Republicans would be clamoring to put those people on. Presumably the former National Security Advisor would know about that.
The only reason to block witnesses, is to block hearing testimony that contradicts Trump's defense. And that is simply supporting Trump's efforts to obstruct.
They can dance and bob and weave and weasel around as much as they want, but there's really no other logical way to look at it. If the guy were innocent, he'd want his people (Bolton, Mulvaney, etc.) to go out there and testify under oath that he is innocent. And he'd also want to give his own testimony to explain why, when talking to Zelensky and giving a press availability to reporters on the White House lawn, the only thing he wanted to investigate was Bidens and Crowdstrike--why no other examples of alleged "corruption" in Ukraine came to mind. (I mean, not even Manafort?)
1
Sophism is alive and well among the presidential debate team members, otherwise known as "the president's defense."
Somebody forgot to study his Plato.
1
Two quotes, one by Edmund Burke, one by Albert Einstein, respectively.
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.
2
Desperately preventing the appearance of witnesses at a trial. What a horrifying debacle. The GOP is fixated on destroying our great country.
At this point I doubt the Democrats want witnesses either. The outcome is foretold; a Biden is likely to be included; and it will divert attention and candidates from the primaries.
Republicans to Democrats - You don't have any witnesses who were in the room. So this is all hearsay.
Republicans to Democrats - But we definitely don't want to hear from any witnesses who were in the room, or see relevant documents, or consider this matter seriously in any way. That would be a disaster.
We enjoy being rubber stamps for the Donald.
Can't you see our careers are on the line here!
Plus we really want to continue forcing our minority agenda on the rest of the country.
3
A cover-up of a cover-up. If they block witnesses the entire GOP is implicated in this anti-Constitutional scheme. Obstruction of Congress BY Congress!
Scrambling to block witnesses doesn't strike me as about getting to the facts of the matter. Why not a headline, Scrambling to hide facts, scrambling to cover up presidential misdeeds?
This will blow up in the GOP's face either way and I think they're starting to understand that. Either Bolton testifies and says damning things about Trump or they block his testimony and the Democrats get to slam them for rigging the trial in Trump's favor.
Republican senators seem legitimately angry and it's easy to understand why - the Democrats have maneuvered them into a position where anything they do will cost them politically. It's a beautiful sight.
1
He doesn't have the votes yet to block witnesses but he'll keep trying.
"The American people are entitled to choose their president."
And we did! And it was not Donald J. Trump!
1
mcconnell needs to be removed and tried for obstruction and what all else.
3
Facts are too difficult to bear.
Relax, everyone. Alan Dershowitz is on the case. We can count on the great constitutional oracle to guide and protect.
1
McConnell and the Senate Repubs are simply trashing America and our constitution, showing clear disregard for the American people and sycophants clinging to the most corrupt criminal to ever occupy our White House. Other than that, the Senate Repubs are fine bunch of corrupt cowards. Let's hope there are at least 4 (ideally many more) R Senators with a spine who care deeply about the future for our children. Bolton and others with relevant knowledge must be heard
Bolton will sit down with Maggie Haberman, or Chris Wallace, or Mary Louise Kelly (that would grind the WH’s gears!) and bear witness to the whole tawdry mess. Forget calling witnesses; they will vote to acquit, anyway. Just be sure to register to vote!
I hope this will all be finished/wrapped up by the end of this week. Just a total waste of time and money like that Russian Collusion baloney...Schiff is so creepy...He, Nadler, Pelosi are horrors.
1
Gop small government now means their dictator is rigging elections in his favor.
1
Mitch to GOP Senators--"Get in Line." Yes, for a 2020 "death march"
People who have to cheat to win aren't winners. They are losers of the worst kind. Republicans better realize this if they don't want their whole party to go down in flames. But they may already have, with their blind allegiance to Trump. We shall see come November.
Bolton is a disgruntled ex-employee who wants to sell a book.
Democrats have no case
Trump 2020
1
@Nycdweller
The Trump Victim narrative in a nutshell.
1
Really? Then I’m sure his testimony will be easy to destroy. Call him as a witness and let’s show that.
1
@Nycdweller I agree that Democrats have no case and I and all my family members and friends will be voting for Trump in November.
1
I have no confidence that these Republicans, who support this horrible president, will vote to hear more witnesses. What an embarrassment! I hope I’m wrong.
1
Republicans: Witnesses? We ain't got no witnesses. We don't gotta show you no stinkin' witnesses!
When this goes predictably south, I think it’s time to just boycott the election.
“Well, Mr. Trump, looks like you’re the winner by default.”
“Yes! The two sweetest words in the English language! De! Fault! De! Fault! De—“
On Tuesday with the refrain of “danger, danger, danger,” by J. Sekulow, I thought he was reading from a script of "Lost in Space".....Danger, Will Robinson, danger! Well, we're lost alright.....lost in his nonsense.
1
Never vote Republican again.
2
Fall in line? This is about national morality and the future of our democracy.
ALL GOOD FASCISTS FALL IN LINE WITHOUT QUESTION. They wait for their higher-up, McConnell, to issue an ORDER and THEY OBEY.
This is what the Republican party has become: Pure Fascists. Each and everyone one of them are a frigid INSULT to every soldier and sailor who gave their lives to smash Fascism in WWII.
Republicans now whole-heartedly embrace and welcome and demand Fascism in America.
2
For goodness sake, you are Senators and Jurors, conduct yourself like you belong there
1
Star knows more delving into the matter with witnesses would uncover who knows what about Trump. Just look at what he came up with on Clinton. So we will not be hearing from witnesses. Mcconnell has already shut up Mckowsky. We will see them cave one by one.
I have just one and very simple question for the GOP that remains unanswered.
What is the harm of being informed?
Senators may choose to either believe or disbelieve witnesses. I accept that without reservation. But, if choosing to not be informed is how the GOP handles something as significant as impeachment, then what does that say about how they approach virtually everything else?
1
Maybe the idea of impeachment was never very realistic or practicable to begin with, especially with party politics the way they are today. How could it ever be anything but partisan, on both sides? Maybe there is some merit to the thought that everyone should just focus on the upcoming election. Impeachment, especially when it is such an ill-defined process, is not proving to be an effective way of dealing with abuses of power.
2
Maybe Democracy is not very realistic either....
No. He committed crimes and has to be held to account.
1
@NYC Nobody, Democrat of Republican, has ever believed Trump will be removed from office. The Democrats did this to force the GOP into a position where they had to actively approve of Trump's behavior.
Remember the outcry for witnesses in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing? The Republicans capitulated, but it didn't change the outcome and only added legitimacy to the process. At this point I hope the Senate votes no witnesses so any fair minded person will plainly see that the Republicans have no interest in truth, justice or the Constitution. I might feel differently if I thought there is any chance of a conviction.
6
@David
No that "process" was about as openly illegitimate as the Senate Trial has been so far.
There was nothing legitimate about confirming that ranting raving lunatic who promised to punish us for questioning him about the allegations. Innocent people simply do not behave that way. Him having been a judge he would know this if he were actually qualified.
2
@David | On the other hand, witnesses can lay bare the sordid dealings of Trump and his corrupt henchmen for the public record. The Republican's simply can't escape unscathed: if they don't call witnesses, it's a clear cover-up; if they do, more bodies will be exhumed. Either way, they're stuffed.
1
Richard Burr and Thom Tillis will never vote to call witnesses, no matter how many letters I write them. My best hope is that a majority of Americans will see the Republican efforts to squash the impeachment enquiry as seditious and pernicious to our republic and be as repulsed as I am. That would leave the final outcomes in the voters' hands this coming November when our capsized ship of state has its last, best chance to right itself with a popular rejection of Trump-publican efforts to destroy our nation's government of the people, by the people and for the people.
8
And a landslide rejection it will be....Americans know this Guy is not worth another term.
There are any number of Republicans and Democrats that could improve on Trumps performance.
@Jack
You have an opportunity to vote Thom Tillis out of the Senate on Nov 3, 2020.
1
Trump wants witnesses. He loves the spotlight, even a bad light. I am torn on this one. Perhaps we should keep our eye on the prize of November. We all know he will be let off by the Senate regardless of what is presented. Anyone else wondering what would be best?
Truth needs to come out. Let the Republicans fall on their belief in Trumpism over patriotism.
1
No. Witnesses need to be called. No brainer.
1
@Kathy Shields Politically, not calling witnesses would probably be best for the Democrats. It will be terrible for the GOP senators in vulnerable states, who will have to explain why they refused to consider relevant evidence. Frankly, I think that's what the Democratic leadership is secretly hoping for because it's guaranteed to hurt Trump.
Bolton is a wild card. Sure there's a chance he drops a bombshell that cripples Trump but it's equally likely that he will just parrot what the House managers have already said (i.e. not present any new evidence) or be discredited by Trump's attorneys.
We need to remember that witnesses and evidence are a necessary, but not sufficient condition for a fair trial. An impartial jury is also a must.
In this impeachment trial the jury is rigged, and we all know that. No matter how many witnesses testify to Trump's guilt in this deplorable conspiracy to smear the Bidens, the Republican senators will vote to acquit and Trump will remain in office. The American people have been robbed of their democracy in three short years.
10
The whole impeachment defense strategy is to get it over with as soon as possible without any testimony before the truth comes out in a definitive way. Then, when it does, claim “too late!”
The GOP as a whole is in active cover-up mode and in extreme denial - like a drug addict. Or, like people under extreme leverage over something revealing about themselves they would rather not have made public. So, toe the Don’s line.
I expect some rank partisanship and political hackery, but this near-universal submission to such an individual is mind-bending and highly disturbing. Americans don’t submit to anyone, not even their own President.
9
@historyRepeated
Interesting take. Care to offer a reason why the House participated by rushing their investigation and not issuing more ( any ) subpoenas? Since they didn't rush it to get it done in time to impact the Election? Or do you just want to admit they did exactly that and now want to drag it out for the same reason?
And they’re addicted to corporate fascism and white supremacy. President Trump may be a corrupt, purely self-serving, narcissistic Republican but he’s still a Republican and there are no checks on the Senate compelling them to put the national interest ahead of party loyalty (I think it is something to the tune of 1/3 of Republicans prefer Trump to the rest of their party).
Unless America shapes up and we say to Republican Senators that we do not want a corrupt leader, we are choosing authoritarianism and fascism over fairness and the rule of law.
Most Americans. These GOP are an embarrassment. Weasely and sycophantic. We need to really clean house in November.
Unfortunately, this is why there is such low regard for and high distrust of our congress.
Their refusal to do what is right, by any standard, is almost criminal...and it puts our democracy, with the inherent checks and balances, in jeopardy.
In Nov, it is time to start cleaning out the senate.
8
Our expectations inluence the behavior of others. People tend to rise to encouragement. If you repeatedly tell them they lack the character and intelligence to succeed, you are helping them to fail.
These ideas are core principles for a classroom teacher.
I’m hoping that Senators Romney and Collins will lead the way to a breakdown of unreasonable partisan prejudice. Thoughtful, ethical Republican senators, one by one, will independently decide to put country, truth and justice before party.
There are one hundred U.S. Senators on the impeachment jury. I believe we citizens should politely encourage every one of them to follow “the better angels of their nature” and do what is right and just for the nation.
3
The proof of Trump’s obsession with himself is so all-consuming that I find it amazing that his base doesn’t see it as a sign that he really doesn’t, never has and will not ever care one iota about them.
7
Republican senators, as always, are apparently afraid of the truth coming out in witness testimony. If the president did nothing wrong (not), then he and his allies in the Senate should welcome live testimony. By stonewalling and covering up under the guise of specious legal mumbo-jumbo, they are implicating the president even further. This is not rocket science.
6
An innocent man would welcome every opportunity to have the truth come out.
Unless he lacks confidence in his legal team.
Or distrusts the jury.
Or isn't innocent at all.
The President has his legal "Dream Team" and a stacked jury of cowering GOP senators.
That only leaves the third choice.
6
@Chris. Yes. The truth can be revealed in just a few words.
If Senate Republicans block witnesses, the United States can no longer consider itself a democracy. It’s as simple as that.
9
So Mitch "warns" the whole world that he may not have the votes to block Impeachment witnesses.
This is Mitch's way of calling for urgent help from WH henchmen to start strong-arming GOPers who are defying Trump's direct order for "NO Witnesses!"
Reminder, Trump does not believe in gentle coercion tactics.
3
Someone just has to stand up and say who cares about Trump!
It’s really really sad how quickly people will follow a bully.
1
How is Mitch and his henchmen allowed to intimidate the jurors by whipping the vote? Jury tampering and every other sort of misdeed is allowed in the Senate kangaroo court without any provision to stop actions that would not fly in real courts. The Constitution relies on people with a sense of honor and ethics which does not exist in sufficient quantity in these times. Trump may get a "pass" to partisan passions; however, it is obviously a "cooked" result. It will never a be true acquital for Trump or anything but a false polictical contrivance.
2
@BLassiter, you’d think a fair and impartial “Presiding Judge” would have something to say about jury tampering. If only we had one.
Let the witnesses testify and produce the documents. The GOP’s credibility is on the line!
1
They crossed that line a long time ago. Vote them out.
One wonders how the chief justice really views his historic oversight of complete and total farce, pretending to be a trial ? Then again, one also wonders how God views the fallacious appeal made by the republican senators to guide their fairness ?
5
Perhaps the saddest headline I’ve ever seen.
2
Bolton is clearly a poison pill for the GOP- They have pre-ordained the acquittal, so Bolton testifying would put them in a really tough spot: Now, faced with obvious and incrimination first-person testimony, suddenly their faustian bargain to acquit makes them publicly complicit in what will (sooner than you think) be seen as the greatest cover-up in American History, which they didn't even bother covering up at all.
3
If abuse of power is not an impeachable offense, I guess the Republicans will be cool with a Democratic president abusing power.
This would be a terrible precedent.
4
@AJ Imagine how the Republicans' heads would be spinning if Obama had done even a tenth of this.
2
Trump's not going away even if he's impeached or defeated. He'll keep holding rallies except he'll start charging admission. Pompeo, Jared, Tucker Carlson will be running for president before you know it. The only way out is for Dems to figure out a story for rural America that disposes of the Reds' 40-vote advantage in the electoral college and the senate.
5
That is the truth, but it can’t hurt to start by taking down the head bully.
1
If there are to be no witnesses why don't the Democrat senators simply walk out and refuse to cast votes?
2
Alert, intelligent Republican senators will be listening carefully to the angels-of-the-future silently whispering into their ears, "Avoid the temptations of the devils currently whispering into your right ears. You have a chance to stop him in 2020."
1
One step closer to Banana Republic status. The Republican Party has lost its mind.
3
I guess I’m buying Bolton’s book
1
I think Republican senators all have Stockholm Syndrome. The president treats them like shoeshine boys and lap dogs, and when the chance to get rid of him arises, they line up like a choir and sing his praises.
2
Make America Great Again !
G.O.P. Leaders Scramble to Corral Votes to Block Witnesses -
so sad -
so sickening sad -
thank you mitch mcconnell !!!
3
Republicans LOVE control - gerrymandering, voter suppression, propaganda, witness intimidation, or, in this case outright blocking witnesses from even testifying. Shameless and antidemocratic behavior, they're showing their true colors - cowards and frankly unpatriotic. They don't appear to care for their country, only their power.
4
It is shameful, absolutely shameful what the Democrats have done to this country and to this administration because of their rage of Hillary losing
@Nycdweller
I know! I so wanted Hillary Clinton to have the opportunity to abuse power, destroy alliances, enrich herself, threaten diplomats, and extort foreign leaders for personal political gain! And lie about it with impunity!
2
It has little to do with that. Please try to understand. Please, please please, I’ll get down on my knees, but quit using that tired line this is about Hillary , It ALL about TRUMP and always has been.
3
I'm an independent voter.
The lengths the GOP is going to prevent any testimony from witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what actually happened, or similar evidence, is troubling.
The president says he's innocent.
All the GOP says he's innocent.
So why are they afraid to let the public hear his supporters, under oath, testify to that fact?
I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, but it tells me they're lying about what they're saying.
I don't see another viable conclusion.
217
@galtsgultch
Do you remember when they were all grousing that there was no first hand witness?
12
The viable conclusions would be to vote them out of office, they are crooked.
14
@galtsgultch,
Because no defendant wants to open a can of worms if it's not needed. Why is it that most defendants don't testify at their own trial? You only do that as a last resort.
5
"Republicans work to hold off witnesses."
Dems are rightfully outraged, it has been 3 years of outrage piled upon outrage.
But outrage does not translate into Republicans doing your bidding. Although Dems control the House, they are effectively out of power. Period.
The question is whether this outrage will translate into more of the Democratic youth and base becoming engaged in getting voters registered in critical battleground states. Not just talking to each other on social media, but actual boots-on-the-ground activism, like OK Boomers did in opposing the Vietnam War.
And whether they are prepared to rally around the eventual nominee, and acknowledge no matter who s/he is it is better than 4 more years of Trump agenda via judicial appointments and EOs.
Otherwise it will be 4 more years of Trump and Democrats wandering in the wilderness, outraged of course.
8
@Dan88
Although the Democrats are “out of power” in a way, they are positioned on the right side of history. Over time, this provides them power which will overwhelm the grasp of men like Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell.
Truth, fact, reason and justice will prevail, so long as the wisdom and common sense of the American people control our elections. The current chaos will one day be viewed by historians as a sore trial of our democracy, one from which we emerged wiser, stronger and reunited.
We have hit a major bump in the road. It is time to regroup and to begin again moving forward.
3
This has little to do with Democrats and everything to do with Republicans coming in from the barren desert of corruption.
Republicans need to quit playing this game of team politics. We are all Americans. Real Republicans need to leave this corrupt party behind. Where is the real Republican candidate? Are they really going to vote for an impeached Candidate? That’s sad.
1
@Steve, @Tom W BTW, I notice that you are both located in states that might decide the 2020 presidential election. You (and your friends) are uniquely situated to get involved in registering voters and turn-out efforts that could make a real difference in getting a Democrat elected. That would mean not having to worry as much about Republicans and their agenda come January 2021.
1
“This should end now,” urges Mr. Cipollone, “as quickly as possible.”
The implied warning is clear: Allow a lengthier process, with witnesses and testimony, and you paint a clearer picture of the corruption that facilitated both the misdeed and the ensuing cover-up. Mitch McConnell and his tagalongs will suffer. A shadow will fall over the State of The Union speech.
Also clear is the implied invitation: Sweep this thing out of the way and get ready for the Super Bowl.
Insidious.
16
No witnesses, no evidence, no conviction = Republican version of a fair and impartial impeachment trial
I would hope that most Americans disagree with the Republican vision of American impeachment trial and would condemn the manner in which they are attempting to conduct it as a farce.
9
The GOP keeps arguing that the courts have been excluded and so Trump has not be granted "due process". Maybe I'm seeing things but isn't the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding over the proceedings? Isn't he the guy who gavels the opening and closing ( and little else)?
7
@JL: The US Senate vets all federal judicial appointees. I sure get tired of all the tautological rationales of people I'd rather not be governed by, and their theocratic judicial appointees.
2
@Steve Bolger @JL
The nation is preoccupied for the moment with the mob-boss behavior of Trump and his minions, but history will show him to be a mainly a grotesque Charley McCarthy to the puppet-master Mitch McConnell. The Merrick Garland nomination marks the moment when McConnell forever politicized the solemn process of selecting justices for lifetime positions on the Supreme Court and in the vast federal judiciary. I have no idea how that Pandora's box can be closed -- even in the event of an expansion S
The Senate Republicans are setting the stage to permanently damage the Republican Party. To not want to hear the direct witnesses would be a disgrace. Whether those witnesses will or will not have an impact on the Senators deciding if the 2 charges are worthy of removal does not matter. The lack of hearing direct witnesses, other than the President, will result in the Republican Party losing my vote forever. Such a shame the party has gone this way.
7
The Republican party was destroyed 4 years ago when Trump won the nomination, this is not the Republican Party it is Trumps party.
"GOP Senate leaders scramble to block witnesses". The title says all: they are attempting a coverup in broad daylight. It's a tyranny made possible by the fact that North Dakota has the same number of representation as California.
10
I find it absolutely shameful that the Republicans are preventing a fair trial for no other reason than protecting their own party interests. Without all the witnesses and documents the entire process is a sham.
6
Senators not wanting to hear testimony from witnesses,are not fulfilling their constitutional duty. Americans want a resolution not a cover up. Trump wants to hide the truth while he continues running amok, rolling back laws to protect the environment and making unfair deals with Netanyahu, another immoral leader. New polls show the majority of Americans want Trump impeached, so just do it please.
7
70% of the American people want to hear from the witnesses, while Donald Trump only wants to be able to say to his base that he is "exonerated." Note: as far as history is concerned, President Trump is already an impeached and a disgraced president.
Does Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell want to disgrace the Senate as well? McConnell is well on is way with his attempt to railroad a verdict of acquittal in the Senate without hearing from a key witness/witnesses. Case closed, says Mitch, and "or else" heads on stakes to any GOP senator who votes to allow witnesses.
So the choice is simple Senate Republicans:
1. Stand up for the Constitution and rule of law for the future of our democratic nation, and allow key witnesses to testify;
or
2. Vote for the rule of men, and give Mr. Trump and his cronies what they want. Refuse to allow key witnesses to testify, and make a mockery of the Constitution, the rule of law, and communicate to the citizens of this country and the world that what the American people want to see happen simply will not, as long as McConnell is in charge.
It's your choice GOP senators. Which way should you vote?
11
By blocking witnesses now, the Republicans are acting in the interests of Trump, and not abiding to their sworn oath to uphold the constitution.
Over time more and more dirt will come out on Trump and I am sure with the way he operates there is an abundance of it out there. If there are no witnesses now, the Republicans must suffer the consequences in November as they are not doing what the tax payer is paying them for. And for sure Trump is not !!!
The whole situation is appalling. I keep thinking the country is at a low point and yet we seem to sink lower with every day Trump is in power.
Trump purports to have made America great, and that it is respected around the world. I am not sure in what universe that is the perception. The US is now shunned on the world stage, case in point the Nato meeting with world leaders laughing at Trump. It will only get worse. We need transparency and witnesses now.
6
Dear Republican law makers:
This is not the American way! This would not be legal in any other courtroom in this country.
We the people want and deserve to hear from witnesses.
7
Why not just tell the truth. Republicans are plotting a cover up at the behest of the White House. They are opposing the testimony of witnesses to prove a crime. Yet, they also allege that no crime has been committed since their are no witnesses. They cannot have it both ways. Clearly, a quid pro quo.
8
For his entire adult life Trump has used the wealth he inherited to suppress criticism of and avoid any consequences for his immoral, unethical, corrupt and criminal behavior.
Now the world is seeing the ugly reality of his debased character on parade in one of the biggest public forums there is. Good.
Thanks to his senate Republican toady's he will likely escape the full consequences he deserves but at least he will pay some price for his venal acts.
5
I find this type of behavior in our Senate Deplorable? This is 3rd world country stuff. I guess we are there. Sad!
5
Everyone in the US that lives in a state that has a Republican Senator should send a message to that Senator asking one simple question: Why are you blocking witnesses?
6
Yes where are the people in those states? It’s unbelievable they can put up with this.
Instead of McConnell urging his Republican senators to "get in line", I would urge that McConnell get in line with the truth with respect to how pathetic of a president we now have occupying our Oval Office...a president who openly solicits the help of Putin's Russia, our primary foreign adversary, to help him steal yet another election.
The simple truth is that we can't take another four miserable years under Trump. Our collective misery index would rise beyond acceptable limits. Four more years of Trump is four more years of pure misery. The planet, and its inhabitants, simply can't take it.
5
"President Trump’s lawyers urged senators to disregard a new account by the former national security adviser John Bolton that backs the impeachment case."
Well, what did we expect? That's kinda all they can say. Plus liars lie--like a rug--and obfuscate and misdirect and demonize and gaslight and wrap themselves in the flag. Trump's lawyers, claiming they are above the political fray, are telling us to not believe Trump's own appointed national security adviser. At this point, except for the Trump base the whole world knows that Trump blackmailed Ukraine, knows what his real aims were, knows it was both illegal and unconstitutional, knows they tried to cover it up, knows Pompeo, Mulvaney, Pence et al. are in it up to their eyeballs, and knows that no president has ever done it before.
4
We The People of the United States of America demand to hear from witnesses and read relevant documents relevant to the Articles of Impeachment of President Trump.
Senators: This is not a request; this is a requirement, if your decision is to hold any legitimacy whatsoever.
6
It seems being a narcissistic bully works well if you are the President of the United States. His people are afraid of his wrath if they go against him, so put aside all common sense, integrity and most importantly, genuine care for the people they represent. Is this a democracy? Where am I?
3
The disingenuousness of Sekulow's arguments about Bolton is breathtaking. Bolton's account is not "unsourced" -- it comes from Bolton himself. And if you want to know whether it is true, you bring the man in and question him under oath.
The majority of Republicans do not want to hear from Bolton because his testimony will make them look even more like pliant tools of Trump when they vote to acquit. McConnell and the rest of his caucus -- with, we may hope, at least four exceptions -- have no interest in truth, evidence, or logic; they simply want to acquit Trump of the crimes and misdemeanors obvious to most Americans and move on in the hope they can retain the presidency or, if not, at least the Senate.
Our country is in the hands of madmen, autocrats, thieves, and liars.
1
Why wasn’t the GOP Senate’s offering to allow testimony from John Bolton provided they can have testimony from Hunter Biden considered to be more “GOP Quid Pro Quo”?
1
By blocking witnesses, and documents in rhis impeachment trial , these Senate Republicans have now forever defined themselves as accomplices to a president who has obstructed justice and broken the law.
They will be seen as the equivalent of the “Black Socks“ scandal in the 1919 World Series. That was 100 years ago and we’re still talking about it. 100 years from now we will be remembering these disgraceful Republicans and what they have done to undermine our rule of law and our form of government.
History is not kind to those who compromise their integrity and sense of conscience.
What is worse is that many of these senators will live for the rest of the natural lives in ridicule, disgrace, and derision . They have betrayed America; what could be worse than that if you’re a Senator?
1
A better headline: Senators Struggle to Ignore Truth.
2
GOP senators must sense that they look like fools when they refuse to call witnesses. They still can’t see what the rest of the world sees—Emperor Trump has no .......... defense!
1
Really? Utter hypocrisy, complicit coverup, complete abandonment of the nations needs by the leadership of Senate Republicans. Good thing we can vote them all out soon.
2
This boils down to Republicans working furiously to protect a criminal wannabe dictator in the White House, and a big chunk of the country supporting that.
It can happen here.
3
It's interesting to see Starr and Dershowitz referred to as legal experts.The first looked under every rock to find something to go after Clinton and the second is like a juke box ...put a coin in and he'll play any song you like.
5
"I am Trump the great and powerful... whoops, er pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
1
If they are using the Clinton impeachment for a template, put Trump on the hot seat and make him testify! Under oath.
Why is he getting to call the shots for the duty of a separate branch of government?
He decided in the Kavanaugh hearing that the lawyers could NOT even talk to Kavanaugh or Ford. Whaaattt? Enough of this foolish coddling of Trump- he is deforming our democratic processes.
We can live without Trump, but not the Constitution.
4
This is the Donald tactic. Disregard anything that is incriminating or financially hurts him in any way. Just keep screaming and calling people names. I guess in America you either find this infantile behavior either completely obnoxious or cool.
564
@Two Americas: Trump is like a photon that has shrunk to a dimension one Planck unit thick at the ultimate speed of energy.
11
@Two Americas I so agree. This is simply what it comes down to.
22
@Two Americas and if that doesn’t work, dig for dirt on his enemies with the help of Russians or whoever
42
We should not completely discard the possibility that Trump will be thrown out of office. Maybe unlikely, but not impossible. Trump has not been good for the Republican Party. Yes, he mobilizes the base but many would happily be rid of him if they could only figure out a way. The trouble is the base is very enthusiastic about Trump but, his support throughout the rest of the country has essentially disappeared. As a party, the Republicans are far worse off under Trump than before Trump.
I just hope that, should that possibility occur, we are ready for it. It would not be at all impossible in that circumstance for Pence to assume office and immediately pardon Trump (as well as a pre-impeachment pardon for Barr, Mulvaney, Pompeo and possibly others) as happened for Nixon. All of those individuals are deeply involved in the scandal that might bring down Trump.
We need an entire new government otherwise, the modus operandi remains unchanged.
14
Stunning. Just stunning that our elected representatives would strategize on how best to prevent the truth from being revealed. I realize that's naive thinking. It's just shocking to see it in print. The entire nation is going to need mental health therapy when this is all over. How could one person have done this to us?
26
@Larry - they don't care about truth. They are winning and Trump is now disposable. Sure, it wouldn't look good, but they still have the Senate at least temporarily to protect all the tax cuts and judges (listening Mr Roberts??) for a while, maybe longer.
Another example of how the rules are very different for the minority in this country. Can you imagine a civil trial where no witnesses or evidence were entered into the trial? Can you imagine a civil trial where the accused and their lawyers base their argument on "why are we here?" No you cannot, because it would NEVER happen to the majority of people. If Republicans get away with this, can we just say that the rule of law is a sham in this country.
I'm now really starting to viscerally understand the anger and frustration that led to the great revolutions in history.
10
Republicans say Hunter Bidens testimony is relevant but then turn around and say they aren’t going to call him as a witness. Probably because he is going to say ‘I wasn’t in on Trumps extortion scheme. Don’t have any information to add about that.’
8
Another sad day in our deteriorating democracy.
This does not look good for the future.
6
Pleased to see that General Kelly has found some of his courage.
4
McConnell could care less if he was called Attila the Hun. He is going to take the hit for having a fake trial and keep it moving. More than a year he was condemned for not giving Judge Garland a hearing and he never broke a sweat. McConnell knows our short attention span will be a benefit to him.
9
We really need John McCain right now. An independent thinker.
1
The question is why does Trump and the GOP not want Bolton's statements on the Senate record.
5
@DjStJames because Trump is guilty as charged.
2
John Bolton must testify. The GOP is afraid that whatever they are really behind is starting to unravel...as it should.
6
It's truly an farcical, Alice In Wonderland world where a) both a majority of judge/jurors and the defense are desperate to block the most direct witnesses (but may want to call irrelevant witnesses); and b) the defense argues that the the defendant didn't do anything wrong...but shouldn't be convicted even if he did! Why argue the latter of you're arguing the former?
And it's an Alice in Wonderland world where hyperpartisan politicians -- many of them hacks -- pretend to be United State Senators, and high-powered lawyers pretend to make a legal argument while delivering a political hatchet job.
11
The world is on fire. And where it isn't on fire it is being flooded. A glacier in Antartica the size of England is melting. The air is polluted . The water is contaminated. When all those things were being predicted these ridiculous senators said it was just scare tactics. Our greed and our greed alone is what is fueling the engine of prosperity. Now that everything predicted is happening right in front of them they still pretend that it is not happening.
Is it any wonder they don't want any witnesses.
3
Lets see, the Republicans call the impeachment a dirty political trick and a sham but as the same time they are trying to block the introduction of evidence. Only those who are afraid of the evidence try to keep it out.
8
Republicans are continuing to construct a farce. Trials require witnesses and DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE.
Republicans only “win” by lying, cheating and stealing. Elections 2000 & 2016 are evidence. Please include states of Wisconsin and the Carolinas. There are others but my heart has its limits.
3
John Cornyn says they are trying to get everyone on the same page? What he really means is trying to get all of the Senators to disregard the majority of the American people who have been clear that they want witnesses. He has never been an impartial judge.
The more I read about this, the more I am convinced that President Trump is attempting to “win” with this, his ultimate con job. I am increasingly thinking that the Senators who are automatically, even robotically “falling into line” are aware that they are partners in this momentous con job on the American people. Alan Dershowitz’s past impeachment comments are part of the con. Get the evidence and the witnesses. The majority of the American people want this. It’s a win argument for why you vote the way you do. Relying on an argument that says the House didn’t get witnesses like John Bolton is beyond lame. Your constituents will know you had the chance to get at the whole story via a volunteer witness with first hand knowledge and you didn’t do it because of how long it might add on to the trial? Do your job. Your constitution and democracy is worth it.
6
I'll be visiting Venezuela soon. I am amazed at the similar political and election strategies of The Donald and Maduro.
2
So much for the oath taken by these senators to be impartial... they're all corrupt! Since Trump became president, everything has just been a shambles... democracy is basically over and there is just nothing but hate...
3
I have tried to stay as open minded as possible on the issues of impeachment. Trying to block witnesses however, changes my mind in a definitive way. Is there any better example about what the Senate Republicans are trying to avoid? And, it has nothing to do with what is good for our nation--absolutely nothing!
248
After the president’s legal team’s performance, one salient question is provoked:
Did all of his defenders get their law degrees from Trump University?
20
@Badger land
Republicans are so polluted by Toxic Trump, they have become truly delusional.
How can they possibly think that America will support them in BLOCKING key witnesses with first hand knowledge of the details of this Ukraine scandal.
They are just so disgustingly insulting to the American people.
The GOP have completely lost their minds and voters are going to send them packing in November.
9
@Aweesker Teddy - Thank you for providing me the first laugh out loud moment of the day. :)
These men (and Bondi) defending him have demonstrated a remarkable degree of shamelessness, hypocrisy and stupidity. They will forever be disgraced for their total lack of honesty and willingness to defend the indefensible while completely trashing the Constitution (and I hope their careers).
1
"Mr. McConnell’s comments as a pointed signal that it was time for rank-and-file senators to fall in line."
"“It was a serious family discussion,” Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota"
The GOP is not a family, it's a cult that is destroying our democracy and moving toward autocratic rule. IIt is a cult with a cult following.
It is time for Republican Senators to step out of line and do the right thing for the sake of our county - even if they lose their precious jobs. They should set the example for the base and explain why. America and democracy first.
10
Here is another Trump argument that has to be put to rest.
“Trump cared more about Ukraine than Obama because he approved and delivered military aid.”
The fact that providing military aid was the the official Trump policy, a policy that Donald Trumpted often to denigrate Obama, makes the withholding an abuse of power. It is evidence of Trump’s negotiating modus operandi : maximum pressure. Trump is a heat seeking missile always homed in on his target’s weaknesses and needs as pressure points. By holding up aid he demonstrated to the new Ukrainian where the power in America really lies, and whose whims must be pleased.
The fact that Trump withheld aid that was Comfressional approved, official policy, against the advise and counsel of all relevant, concerned and experienced government officials, and in violation of the law, in order to undermine his leading political opponent,AND he was fully aware of the importance of the aid to our policy and the recipients proves the ABUSE OF POWER. He knew he was threatening and doing something that “hurt”, to coerce Ukraine to “do us a favor though.”
2
"they described Mr. McConnell’s comments as a pointed signal that it was time for rank-and-file senators to fall in line."
I agree. 75% of registered voters want witnesses & it's time for GOP Senators to fall in line, stop obstructing justice, respect the Constitution and give the people they work for what they want.
7
The world knows Trump is going to walk and the only unknown is when. Susan Collins and Romney may even vote for witnesses but it is only to save face. McConnell knows he has to votes and all of this is just to give some cover to certain Senators.My hope is once Trump is acquitted the Bolton freight train keeps chugging. If the Dems play this right they can use this Farce to take the Senate back. I just wish Collins spare us all her hand wringing act that she made famous during the Kavanaugh hearing.
5
The headline reads: "Republicans Work to Hold Off Witnesses"
That is the current status of the Republican Party. Let's not get the truth. Let's not seek out what happened. Let's vote to acquit regardless of what happened.
The entire Republican party needs to be run out of government. Because having the Republican party in office, and in fact leading the Senate, is a disgrace to the U.S.
7
At what point do we get in the streets and take this country back?
4
The hypocrisy of McConnell and most GOP members of Congress knows no limits: Benghazi investigations ad nauseam; there are no first-hand witnesses; there is no need for Bolton who can provide first-hand testimony. Black is white; black is white; black is white. “Ignorance is strength.”
4
And now Manchin is willing to vote to give Trump exactly what he despicably tried to extort from Ukraine, an official and legitimate-looking assassination of the Bidens. For what possible purpose--to offer the Republicans an example of what bi-partisanship should look like? Oh please, these Republicans are not led by such examples, only by their own damaged lights.
2
A trial without witnesses. Complete banana republican nonsense.
But by all means republicans go for it! This is your last chance to reign him in.
Good luck if you don’t. There is no boundaries or lines in which this administration respects.
5
"Scramble" = desperate attempt to keep evidence out. I'm insulted by how stupid the Republicans and Trump and his attorneys clearly think Americans are, because the diversionary and rhetorical tactics spewing from that side are overt. I'm horrified that they're right, and that tens of millions of Trump supporters are buying it. What's clear is that Democrats and independents want hard, cold facts, aka: evidence and Republicans and Trump supporters want a peg on which to hang their hats to excuse Trump's behavior, no matter how feeble that peg.
2
Don't want to call new witnesses then what are you afraid of, the truth?
4
The Emperor has no clothes, but the Republicans will determine that he is the best dressed man in town.
2
I read the Wall Street Journal's story reporting McConnell's remarks -- not enough votes to avoid witnesses! -- on the WSJ website.
McConnell Says GOP Doesn’t Have Votes to Block Impeachment Witnesses. Senate majority leader makes remarks in private Republican meeting.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-defense-team-to-close-arguments-complicated-by-bolton-reports-11580215229
Reading the WSJ comments, I saw one suggesting that we all call our Senators and give them our views on calling witnesses.
I think that is a brilliant suggestion. I called both of mine.
You may also want to encourage your friends and family to call.
You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request. https://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm
3
If I were you I would talk to every neighbor you can and tell them to vote for new Senators. It’s time to put these guys out of office, only you can do that.
Why is it that the remains of the former Republican Party, now completely subsumed to the DJT fever/cult, find it so difficult to do the right thing? Oh, poor Susan Collins, clutching her her hanky, struggling, just struggling so. Pathetic Mitt Romney, periodically sticks his his head up through the ground, like an actual mole, to see which way the winds are blowing. Sad, sad sad.
6
I love the calls for Hunter Biden to be called to the stand...How many episodes of Law & Order do you have to watch to realize he has nothing to do with this. It's like saying "call this witness and he'll explain why I killed this other guy..."
BUT, I'd allow it if I was the D's...if we are going to go off base let's call Jarod, D jr., Ivanka, Rudy...etc....
4
Seems to me Trump’s interference in the election in 2016, and his continued abuse of his power as President to swing the election in his favor is damning. Getting Russia or China to interfere, encouraging them to hack Democrats computers, which Trump has done openly, most certainly should be a crime. And if, as everyone including Ambassador Taylor has testified, Ukraine is on the frontline keeping Russia from expanding into our allies, why is it not tantamount to treason?
2
The Walter Cronkite Republican notes that Senator McConnell is considered to be an excellent vote counter. If 70-80% of the voting public are on record of favoring more witnesses and evidence to be presented and considered in the impeachment trial and that does not happen, that is 70-80% of the voting public who are less likely to vote Republican in the next election.
6
The President's "Dream Team" of lawyers should be subjected to their state bar associations' oversight committees for their absurd legal arguments and interpretations of the Constitution.
All those Republicans who have violated established rules on cell phones and who have read non-pertinent material during the proceeding should be removed.
All those Republicans who have betrayed their oaths to do impartial Justice should be disqualified from voting.
The Chief Justice should order the subpoena of witnesses and clarify the limited power of executive privilege (which is not even mentioned in the Constitution and would never have been approved by the Founders who did not want to live under a King.) The Chief Justice should not commit or tolerate obstruction of Justice or permit this impeachment proceeding to become a miscarriage of Justice.
The legal opinion of some, not all, of the attorneys in the Office of Legal Counsel that a sitting President cannot be indicted while in office, is not a law, passed by Congress and signed by any President. But for that OLC opinion Mueller would have charged the President with ten counts of Obstruction of Justice.
This President must be impeached and removed from office for his "high crimes and misdemeanors." Soliciting foreign help to undermine our elections is a subversion of the legitimacy of our government.
Bolton, Pompeo, Mulvaney, and others must serve the American people, and tell the truth now.
11
@JMT: Every time the word "colleague" issues from McConnell's mouth, I picture him opening the whole Senate to what Trump is doing to Joe Biden, a former senator. How in the world did that awful man accrue so much power?
3
The Republicans are afraid of Bolton: not what is in his book, but what else he knows and may say. Their strategy is to reject the charges - all of which have been substantiated - on the constitutional equivalent of a motion to dismiss, accepting Dershowitz’s arguments that the charges do not amount to impeachable defenses.
That’s the plan. But Bolton is a known unknown - he knows a lot, and they don’t know what. He’s dangerous, for that reason.
Which is also why he must testify.
227
@RMC
Bolton is the kind of dangerous that makes Republicans shake and quake in their overpriced designer spoons.
But Bolton is also the kind of dangerous that Democrats need in order to expose with credibility the many misdeeds and criminal acts this president has done.
Whoever thought "dangerous" could be a "good" thing. Actually, it's not a good thing, but rather, a necessary trait under these wild and uncharted waters.
24
The drip, drip of revelations against our vaunted president is enough to keep the madness going, but never enough to actually end it. In the words of Ebeneezer Scrooge,"I'll retire to Bedlam".
3
Fall in line? So much for the oath taken by these Senators to be impartial. Isn't this perjury?
6
I believe that Senators should definitely call witnesses, however I don't see how the GOP leaders are "scrambling" to find votes. This is a tendentious headline, as it implies in the imagination of the reader that GOP leaders are running around and terrified that witnesses will be called because of what these witnesses may reveal. While we may have personal opinions about whether this might be true or not, the space to explore that would be in the Opinion section or in an editorial, not in the newsroom. It somehow doesn't seem like a headline worthy of the great reporting in the Times.
The Senate Majority Leaders wants to and is actively trying to obstruct justice. There is no other way to say it.
6
While I never agreed with Bolton's stances, I also never questioned his honesty and integrity and that he was a public servant. With Trump, however, I have always questioned his honesty and integrity and know that Trump acts solely in his own self interests. So who are we to believe?
3
Wouldn’t the Democrats be better off having the Republicans not allow witnesses and constantly driving that fact through the election cycle?
Bolton’s book is coming out whether or not he testifies and other obstruction information will create a drip,drip, drip that will permeate the next nine months.
The 75% who want witnesses and don’t understand how you can have a trial without them will then be open to the cover up argument and can vote accordingly.
1
So just what part of a fair trial involves whipping votes by members of the jury? These Senators supposedly took an oath to be impartial jurors. The fact that they are being coerced to vote against hearing witnesses invalidates the whole process, and I believe the Chief Justice needs to make a point and sanction the Senate Majority Leader for breaking his oath.
2
Basically, with a few tweaks, the president's strategy on this is the same as the administrations stance on climate change. Call it a hoax, deny anyone with first hand knowledge on the subect, browbeat opponents and deny deny deny. Worked on climate change and has a good chance of working again.
1
This is what Representative Steve Scalise (R, Louisiana) said in October 2019 about Democrats' closed door hearings leading up to the impeachment:
"Over the last few weeks, when Congress was not in session, what we saw from Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff should raise alarming questions to people all across this country. Why are they trying to impeach a President of the United States behind closed doors, in secret, where the public can't see it, the press can't see it? Even now Members of Congress that aren’t on the committees of jurisdiction, can't even go read the testimony. What is Chairman Schiff trying to hide from the American people?"
Why is this more about covering up crimes commited by trump instead of getting to the truth? The senate is the jury NOT the defense for the accused! Just another sad day for america under republican control.
4
Sadly, 4 out 10 of our fellow citizens will find this blocking of testimony to be perfectly fine. It is this that empowers the Senate GOP to behave as they do.
1
It's making my stomach twist and grumble, but I've come to the sad and wrenching realization that the U.S. Constitution is, to a large degree, aspirational. The reality is dog eat dog power politicking, currently on lurid display. 'Get used to it'. Gawd help us. Praise the lord and pass the ammunition. Everybody else, cringe, duck, and hold your dear ones close.
4
Seems like a good time to look up "Brainwashing" in the Miriam-Webster Dictionary.
1. a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up
basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and
to accept contrasting regimented ideas
2. persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship.
Seems like timely information.
6
The tale of the tape according the September 17, 2019 issue of
RollingStone magazine:
• McConnell is the poorest Senator on record when he entered Washington as a freshman
• Today he is the richest Senator on record
• Meanwhile Kentucky is at #47 in poverty in all of the US states
Mitch McConnell is in the Senate to enrich himself as is his wife (name one achievement of hers, just one).
The rule of law, democracy, the US constitution are mere inconveniences to be ignored so he can pocket more money.
5
@Opinioned! Aren't you sorry that you're not a Senator? If so, you would also be enriching yourself. I believe that's the name of the game as unfortunate as that may be. As my late grandmother used to say, "whoever sits closest to the pot, eats best".
The US Senate vets all federal judicial appointees. Can this body even conduct a respectable trial itself?
3
If the House Committee wanted Bolton to testify they should have subpoenaed him.
"Ultimately, House Democrats elected not to subpoena Bolton or take the issue up in court, saying it would create unnecessary delays."
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2020/jan/27/donald-trump/trump-falsely-claims-house-democrats-never-asked-b/
The Bolton memoir drama is a direct result of the House's negligence.
Of course the American public has the right to know what their tax money is paying for. That's what Bolton's book is for.
As a single example of a Republican Senator, although you could choose virtually any, read Marsha Blackburn's Wiki page, and the article she wrote to today to the Tennessean "I won't be a useful contrarian." This what we the majority of Americans outside of white, rural America don't understand. On every issue, on every concept, on everything that requires rational, measured MODERN thought, she falls into line with an idealized narrative of the past and a single-minded rejection of progress and the future, including science and medicine. And we expect to convince someone like her that Trump's little foibles (as she would see it) are more important than eliminating abortion, propping up the gun lobby, the military, and the greed of the medical/insurance industries? She is the perfect representative to Washington D.C. for her constituents...and she's not 'faking it' just to retain her seat either. There really are two Americas. The problem is that they are enmeshed in every state like a hand and gloves, rural and urban. Only a common enemy, like an actual invasion...maybe space aliens...would be needed at this point to have bipartisanship that works in any way.
3
Suppose Bolton isn't called to testify and this so-called trial ends with a quick acquittal. Then Bolton's book comes out and everyone will keep talking about how he should have testified, and the Republicans go down in history as obviously short-sighted obfuscators. Is that what they want? And by the way, if none of this is a crime, as Trump's team claims, then the President should have no Fifth Amendment right to remain silent -- so why not just subpoena him to testify under oath?
3
Trump is guilty and everyone knows it. The GOP has no morals, no ideals, and no soul.
7
You'd think the Chief Justice would put those who do *not* want to call witnesses on the spot and ask them "why do you not want witnesses?"
I mean, we know *why*, but I would just really love to hear McConnell grovel just a bit more, spew out a wee bit more sophistry, a few more lies...
I mean, the lack of honor within the ranks of the republican party is beyond measure, so we should make certain we have plenty of evidence for the history books.
I relish the fact that McConnell and so many Republicans will be remembered as liars, dishonorable, cowardly, yes-men of a crooked, bullying, con artist called Trump (and family).
50 years from now, this will be a glorious shameful period in history. One can only hope it will all end on a positive note.
(Bernie is that note, btw.)
3
How many witnesses were called in Clinton’s impeachment ? Zero ?
2
You gotta name things in this world.
Gives people a framework.
Makes things real.
Shifts the narrative.
"The Trump Cover-up"
"The Republican Joke Trial"
"The No Witness Trump Trial"
"President Cover-up"
You gotta name it.
As more we get more information (Bolton and more) dripping out till the election (not to mention all the mischief Trump will get into beyond the Ukraine matter), the electorate will see they have one chance of a lifetime:
Crush Trump and his Republican cult on November 3.
The election to end the nightmare.
4
To Mr. Sekulow - the Senate is the fray.
1
the republicans made their beds and they are about to lie in it.they thought they were so Machiavellian in their secret meetings and as it turns out they are in a chess bind.
3
I wonder if some of the GOP folks will get a really nasty attack of morals and conscience?
One can only hope.
3
All Kabuki
Neither side wants witnesses
NY Times , today
"Joe Manchin, a Democrat, is open to calling Hunter Biden"
He is the exception, the Democrats do NOT want to call the person that caused it all
NY Times, 5 days ago
"Democrat Schumer: Impeachment Witness Trade Involving Hunter Biden 'Off the Table'"
One has to see reality. It is not find the truth, it is to win the election in November.
On both sides.
1
Biden didn’t cause this. TRUMP did based on false disproved allegations.
Quite a headline:
"G.O.P. Leaders Scramble to Corral Votes to Block Witnesses"
in other words
"G.O.P. Leaders Scramble to cover up the president's crimes"
How deep we have sunk in just three years. Hopefully enough people care enough to stop this in November.
5
@Marc
The republicans have been doing this since the Nixon administration. Familiarity breeds contempt. The ability for them to feel shame is gone and they have groomed their "base" to accept whatever they say.
"We are at war with East Asia, we have always been at war with East Asia."
It's wonderful to see the Republican leadership panicking over the possibility that additional direct evidence, by people with first-hand knowledge (which the Republicans have complained for months is lacking) might actually be introduced. Gasp! Facts?? How inconvenient. How frightening. How threatening.
Be careful what you ask for; you may get it.
3
If Dershowitz's argument is that he's defending the Constitution and not defending Donald Trump, then he is ignorant of the flagrant disregard of the Constitution committed by Trump when he illegally withheld congressional approved military aid to force a foreign power to besmirch the name of a political opponent. The framers would have certainly seen that as an attack on the separation of powers they established when they crafted the Constitution.
3
Seriously, at this point I think it might have been better if Clinton had been removed from office.
He lied about an affair. Public opinion and most of the Senate said, yep and not a big deal, not compared to NAFTA and whatever else was so great about that administration.
What if, instead, we rose up and said that regardless of the national importance of the affair itself (none), lying is bad! Lying under oath is impeachable! Lying under oath makes one unfit to be president, pack up and move out of the White House!
That would have set the right precedent.
2
What are the republicans so afraid of by allowing witnesses and documents or better yet what are they hiding? It seems that they lack morality or guts if they are afraid of bully trump. If that’s the case then they should not be senators.
If the Senate acquits Trump, it will be the second time (thanks mealy Mueller) that he has used foreign interference to help with his election. If the Senate acquits him, he will be able to say he has been given the green light to seek foreign interference in elections because it has been allowed two times in the last twelve months. He will be on the phone with Russia the day after Mitch let’s him off, just like the day after Mueller let him off and he spoke to the very sketchy Ukrainians. If nothing is done, he will feel as though he is unimpeachable and can REALLY do anything he wants—imagine that list....people of color and women.
1
This is awful. It's common knowledge that it's not a fair trial without witnesses. It's very clear what they're trying to do and unfortunately it's starting to work, even on me. At this point, I seriously do not care what they do. I just want this fiasco to end! These past two weeks have been beyond depressing. The republicans may get what they want in the end, but that doesn't mean without consequences. Regardless of what happens to their political careers after they acquit Trump, they will go down in history books as crooks. History books are real and forever. They decided to remain loyal to Trump, instead of the American people when he put our country in danger numerous times. I hope they keep that in mind as they continue to defend Trump's selfish actions.
121
@Janet, if at this point you “seriously do not care what they do,” then you are becoming part of the problem. It’s all of our responsibility to care deeply about what happens going forward, otherwise you’re handing the other side of victory And putting the future of this tattered country in the hands of its enemies.
27
@Janet
"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."
George Orwell knew very well that history books are only as good as the society that writes them, publishes them, and promotes their reading.
The victors write the history books.
5
@Janet
"I seriously do not care what they do. I just want this fiasco to end!"
Sometimes we just have to do the important job, even if it takes longer. Consequences here are dire and merit our serious attention.
10
Since we (not me and not a majority of Americans, of course) voted in Trump for entertainment reasons, Republicans should be wary of taking a very entertaining option off the table. The entertainment value of Bolton will be harvested, one way or another. The right play, strategically, is to get the truth out there sooner rather than later. If the truth mattered to Americans, things would have changed long before now. I really don't think it's a hard choice, even if you only care about power. And at least those of us who care about the truth, might learn something new (although what happened in this case has been clear from the first).
3
I wrote a very nonpartisan letter to both my senators (Republicans). In it, I simply asked them to be the kind of jurors we must be when called to duty in local criminal or civil cases; i.e., take in all the relevant facts and make judgments on the preponderance of the available evidence.
What did I hear back? From Blunt I got nothing. From Hawley I got a lecture, dismissing the impeachment in Trump’s terms as a ridiculous witch-hunt perpetrated by Pelosi as a gimmick to remove a President they can’t beat in an election.
I’m an educated person. As such, I research things and draw my own conclusions. Republicans insult the intelligence of an informed and thinking citizenry. Unfortunately, they do this because they can. Because it doesn’t cost them their power.
Maybe that will change now. They’ve gone too far many, many times before, but they’re arrogantly thumbing their noses at justice in this case as a group in a way that should offend anyone who isn’t totally partisan.
Get out the vote in 2020!
374
@Tim Vote Democratic 2020. Maybe that will help restore our country to the adhere to the rule of law.
19
@Tim
I'm surprised he was dumb enough to create evidence like that. They are usually so clever about being dishonest.
11
@Tim Did you pen a similarly non-partisan letter to Nadler, Schiff and Pelosi requesting they be the kind of prosecutors who turn over every stone and interview every witness - even if it means going to court to compel testimony? Surely you would agree that the seriousness of the matter demands the most thorough investigation without one eye on a calendar. It would not seem reasonable to require the Senate to rectify the House's malfeasance.
1
They say, "Impeachment is basically a political process". This impeachment will determine if we keep our country a Democratic Republic, or we let it morph into something else.
15
@the shadow: This impeachment addresses the tip of an iceberg.
1
If there is a bright spot in this imbroglio, it is that McConnell does not have LBJ's talent to whip votes.
9
This farce is a cosmic example of the futility of repression. Politics invariably involves collusions of like-minded interests. Constitutions define the framework for their public transactions.
1
If Bolton did not have a multi-million dollar book deal, what he would write and say would carry more weight with Republicans. Now with big money at stake, it certainly raises the issue that 'money corrupts' both politics and people.
1
Two thoughts:
1. Jay Sekulow needs to go back to school and learn about sources. Bolton's is not an "unsourced allegation". Bolton is the source, and he is an eye witness. What he wrote may not be yet in the public, but he can be called to testify about it, if Sekulow wants to get to the source (which he obviously does not). The Trump team's own comments about the Bidens' supposed corruption is an "unsourced allegation".
2. The senators taking part in this trial have sworn an oath to conduct this trial impartially. Meeting as a group to say they need to get the rest of their party to fall into line on the question of calling witnesses does not sound to me like impartiality. To they really want to perjure themselves like this?
15
@William S. Monroe: Observe what gobbledygook lawyers get away with in courts judged by "Federalist Society" jurists.
1
Yeah, because you know, a trial with no witnesses is so normal. SMH.
10
An 800 lb. gorilla as I am would concedeTrump's offense, yet within the standards of 'diplomacy', it is not an impeachable offense.
Which makes the impeachment procedure doubly sordid. For the reason mentioned above + for the unlikely Senate GOP majority to vote for the impeachment.
Grow up, America and, "get real".
Party over country. Power over integrity. Money over morality.
12
I don't know if any of the GOP senators read the NYT. (Somehow I doubt it...) I am guessing most of these GOP senators have children or grandchildren. What do they think their legacy is going to be? A record of spinelessly supporting the most disgracefully corrupt, anti-science, environmentally destructive, socially amoral administration in US history? What happened to morality and conscience? How can they look themselves in the mirror and say "I did the right thing". How can they look at their children and grandchildren and say, "I left this world a better place for you?"
8
@DK
Because they will leave a better world for their offspring, boatloads of money which will not be subject to inheritance taxes. Wish I could do that for my kids and grandchildren. You can escape a lot of negative consequences if you are wealthy. Their kids have nothing to fear. Mine do
1
@DK: They essays here are too long. They only read Twitter.
1
I'm still wrapping my head around the name of the "Strom Thurmond room" where the Republicans met. Guess I was naive.
13
@Tamar R I'm glad I'm not that only person repulsed by this. It definitely sounds like a comic book villain's lair.
McConnell’s shame.
5
@Norman He clearly has no capacity to feel shame.
Let me summarize the two main arguments I heard from the defense this week: "Impeachment isn't a thing." and "Oh no, don't listen to That guy!"
13
There were Republican talking points and actions, pre-impeachment, to the effect that it couldn't be a crime because Trump did it out in the open and didn't hide it.
Now, maybe by the same logic, Mitch McConnell is trying to assert that it isn't murder if the accomplices bury the corpse on TV.
6
So therefore, exactly how do we describe Republican senators? Sorry to say, but they seem to be "lying robots!" with no obvious autonomy while endlessly repeating the president's lies.
5
Republicans fighting the allowance of witnesses is almost as good as allowing them.
How many republican senate seats are up for grabs this year?
The dems will control both houses.
6
@MM: The Democrats cannot win enough Senate seats to block Republican filibusters of judicial appointments.
The republican band of cowards will never allow witnesses to testify against their dearest leader. Just let this travesty end and hopefully trump and some of his senatorial lackeys will be voted out in November.
4
The Democrats must request from Justice Roberts, all documents & subpoenaed witnesses, most importantly Robert Muller and White House counsel McGann to testify before the Senate!
5
@Steven of the Rockies: Glaciers are melting faster than US courts decide anything.
1
The only thing that would make me feel better is if your next headline read....
"Senators Listen to Their Constituents and Vote to Allow Witnesses."
10
Republicans scrambling to block witnesses. Do they not have a clue how ugly this looks?
10
Where is the courage of a real GOP patriot who is unintimidated by Mitch, Trump or the party. Cowardice & self preservation is the new GOP at the cost of every citizen.
5
Thoughts for our times.....from Marcus Tullius Cicero - Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher who served as consul in 63 BC .
“The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.”
“In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.”
“Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.”
“Live as brave men, and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.”
“Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.”
“The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.”
8
Fall in line? Many of those senators are attorneys. Are they going to deny that evidence and witnesses are un-necessary in a trial? You do not have to be a person with a J.D. to know that a trial requires evidence and witnesses. I don’t care if this drags on for months and months in an election year. It is a trial. Study the evidence and listen to and hear witnesses for the sake of our justice system and our nation.
255
@Homer
Also, they are, as I understand, by oath required to be impartial. How can that be compatible with Mitch urging them to "get in line"?
45
@Homer: The ineffable genius Mitch McConnell has put the Senate on trial for its life.
21
@Homer: Republicans are first defenders of the Republican Party, second, defenders of the Republican Party and lastly, they are not defenders of the US Constitution.
7
What a farce. How is process not standardized? How is it that the jury can decide that they don't want to hear from witnesses or view the evidence in a case? How is this at all justice?
6
“How they proceed now could have significant political ramifications not just for Mr. Trump, but also for Republican senators up for re-election in swing states this fall who want to show voters that they conducted a fair trial.”
Putting on my “what’s morally right” hat, I’d say that the Swing Republican Senators should vote to allow witnesses because it’s the right thing to do. Switching to my “political calculus” hat (a floppy green cynical looking one, perhaps) I’d say that it doesn’t matter how they vote — the Blue Wave is coming to sweep them away in November.
5
Since double jeopardy does not apply to impeachment, the House could and probably should begin proceedings anew if relevant evidence of wrongdoing that is currently been suppressed comes to light.
2
Democrats should embrace the idea of Biden testifying in the Impeachment Trial of Trump. After all the basis of Trumps coercion of Zelensky was to investigate Biden. Therefore Biden is a material witness. He can refute (push back as journalists would say) Trump's implication that he was doing anything corrupt in Ukraine. In so doing Biden can make his case and bolster the case of the House managers.
Read that back slowly. Explain how it makes sense other than as a petulant tit for tat... or quid pro quo if you’re being fancy.
Sekulow is correct that the Bolton manuscript is inadmissible, or at least would be in a normal trial. It is hearsay.
Trial lawyers will tell you that cross-examination is the single best way of getting to the truth. But you can't cross-examine a manuscript, or any other document. That's why you need live witnesses to explain their documents.
That must explain why the Trump legal team is so eager to have Bolton on the witness stand, where they can use cross-examination to surgically pick apart his story, and expose the truth.
Oh, wait ...
7
Both my senators, Tillis, and Burr, of North Carolina, are among the top five recipients of NRA lobbying money- millions upon millions each. Both know in greater, classified depth how corruptly entangled Trump is, they nonetheless march in lockstep with McConnell to block legislation and impeachment trial witnesses.
Tillis’s first gesture as freshman senator was to declare that the sign in every restaurant lavatory, requiring employees to wash their hands after using the toilet, represented government regulatory overreach.
Both he and Sen. Burr have dirty hands.
11
@Paul :
Keep voting GOP until this mess is cleaned up. Who else can citizens trust?
There is rich irony in GOP Senators working overtime to block testimony that very shortly will be available in paperback, hardcover, audible and kindle...
5
“We’re trying to get everyone on the same page,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.
Who is "we"?
Presumably, the Founders could imagine the cajolers and the executioners within party ranks who APPLY SCARE TACTICS upon any Senator to who are on their own page.
In 2015, former Majority Whip John Cornyn had to have a FULL count of GOP Senators who would remain silent BEFORE McConnell announced his intent to steal a SC Judge (JUST HOURS AFTER SCALIA'S DEATH!)
I have no doubt that the Founders would find John Cornyn AFOUL of the Constitution's text, AFOUL of the Senate body's soul as independent members.
3
Listening to Republicans lawyers, Ken Starr and Alan M. Dershowitz in particular, I can imagine them arguing that the 8th Commandment doesn't prohibit lying, per se, because it is written technically to say, "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" and since Trump's didn't lie about his neighbor, he's not technically broken the 8th Commandment.
21
@Mack: Trump's lawyers are experienced bearers of false witness.
5
It is sad to see that this impeachment process has fallen so neatly along partisan lines. The Republicans projected concepts on the lack of need for House evidence has taken on a surreal image, where it may be used to defend the president, but not to more closely look at Trump's conduct, or to examine the negative consequences of his actions and motivations. The idea of fairness is drown in a sea of White House lawyer rhetoric, with the dark motive of avoiding any examination of the facts. Slippery lawyers plying their craft? Public trust is tenuous. It seems that the Republicans can pay now or pay in November.
3
@Eric S: It comes down to Faith vs. Reason in what appears to shape up as mutually assured destruction.
3
Exactamundo!
It comes down to whether or not the USA is a Christian nation kowtowing to the dogma of one sect, secure in its unprovable beliefs and open to no unnecessary reasoning; or a secular nation conceived in the Age of Enlightenment in which one power (State) religion cannot be invoked as an excuse for the excesses of political power.
Republicans present a case in which the president can do no wrong because he is president, or as it used to be known, the divine right of kings.
This is all so incredibly frustrating. The idea that a party could get away with not allowing witnesses to be called is unimaginable. I am looking to the Democratic Party to step up their game in every way possible. The Democrats need to be seeking advice from top legal minds in this country. This is no time for complacency. Democrats must be bold. They need to think creatively. They may need to get a little loud. And they need to get media attention. The best way to get media attention is through protests and sit-ins at state capitols. Target the states with Senators "on the fence" about calling witnesses. Local news channels won't ignore this.
12
@Tom: The Republican position traces all the way back to God's creation of the universe 6000 years ago.
3
So Cipollone thinks because Nadler and Schumer were opposed to the impeachment of Bill Clinton that they should be opposed to the impeachment of Trump. Are the circumstances the same? Are the charges the same? Not even close. And in the case of Clinton most everyone admitted that what Clinton did was wrong, but not warranting of removal. Trumps defense seems to be he was just pursuing policy objectives and did nothing wrong. And that that doesn't rise to the level of impeachment! This on it's face is nonsensical to any rational person. It's like saying to a judge, "your honor I am totally innocent of all charges and therefor request a light sentence."
12
The President is not above the law. Bring in Bolton and let him testify.
14
The president IS above the law. Bring in Barr and let him expatiate and let’s make this fake “trial” about something with true relevance to the nation.
It's telling that the defense rests on Trump should be impeached because 'we' didn't impeach Obama for doing things, and Kenny Starr molesting the intelligence of America by saying impeachment is being abused. So sad.
3
Predictions:
No witnesses or documents for impeachment trial
Trump's acquittal by Senate
Trump reelected in November 2020 (especially if Sanders is Dem nominee)
Thank you.
You forgot to mention if any of this is a good thing.
“Family”???!!!!! So they are a mafia now? No! They are elected to REPRESENT people - large, diverse groups of people and what’s best for groups of us and not just blood or family relations. Groups need to be guided by truth and laws and not by other bonds. Just another example of how far gone the Republicans are in their corruption of our representative system more tuned in to threats and money than what’s true or legal.
13
Mitch McConnell will go down as one of the most reviled Senators in history. He will be a cautionary tale of moral failure and naked greed.
19
Individuals make a difference. Moderate Republicans - do the right thing. Call for witnesses.
8
@KK In NC : There are no moderate republicans who will do the right thing. Two oxymorons in one sentence.
1
John Bolton "begged" Trump for a job.
I've heard some pretty pathetic statements from Trump over these past 3+ years, but that one is an all time doosie.
The more Trump talks and denies his "conversations" with Bolton, the more I believe Bolton's account of events.
12
So, now it looks like this was just a feint on McConnell's part and he does indeed have the votes to block witnesses.
Hmmm...aren't we the country tasked with spreading "democracy" around the world?
Blocking witnessess doesn't seem particularly democratic to me.
Absolutely disgusting.
9
I'm sure not Perry Mason but it seemed if I was on trial for a felony and the Prosecution produced one corroborating witness against me I'd be worried. Two witnesses and I'd probably be asking for a discount from my attorney because I'd know I was throwing away my money.
At this point does any Republican have enough fingers to count the corroborating witnesses claiming Donald's absolute guilt?
What exactly makes the previous witnesses testimony not good enough? There appeared to be more morality in a single fingernail on any single witness produced by the Prosecution than in the entire Trump Administration and family put together x 10.
Do Republicans actually believe Americans are this stupid?
Is this a sick joke straight from the "Twilight Zone" that we'll all wake up from?
If they let this grifter skate on all these crimes why should anyone obey the law? Is the Constitution to be used for toilet paper in the future? Will there ever be another "opposition candidate?" Will there ever be another "opposition" anything in the future?
I live in a small town of 50K and all around me are good families who have spent generations building solid agricultural and other businesses primarily based on the fact that they could depend on the law to protect their work and their hard earned assets. Can the Republicans not see what a literal breakdown of the law at the very top could bring down on this country?
11
What cowards the Republican Senators are.
6
@CA John :
Just to be clear, no one voted for any of these people based on their courage.
1
Fall in line? For heaven's sake do what is right and remove Trump. Don't the Republicans understand it would benefit them to have Pence in the WH?
3
This is so Bizarroland.
I can't believe this is even up for discussion.
Of course the Senate should call as many relevant witnesses as they can.
Call Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo for ssure. And if you think we need to hear from Hunter Biden, then call him. From the first three you will get first hand accounts under oath of what happened. From Hunter Biden you will get to embarrass a guy for imitating the Trump kids who use their family connections to make money.
(And remember, where Hunter has suffered great personal losses, and was raised in a modest household, the Trump kids were raised in a wealthy dysfunctional family) -- we can have a contest over who is more pathetic. But is that what this trial is about?
The whistle blower is totally irrelevant to anything. It does not matter why the truth came out or who the truth-teller is. What is of issue is the information that came out and then the further information that came out in the House's impeachment process.
Call relevant witnesses and call them now.
6
I will from this day forward discriminate against any Russo Republican fascist. No job, product, service or helping hand will ever be offered to anyone who supports Trump and his party of corrupt criminals. Good riddance! And that goes out to my trump supporting racist family in west TX. You broke this county, now reap the whirlwind.
9
Even though it will not change the final vote enough to convict Trump, the witnesses, all of them, should be heard. The American public has a right to hear them out and learn the facts. Sekulow’s and Dershowitz’s arguments are lame at best.
If the witnesses are not called the quailing Republican senators will be exposed as co-conspirators enabling the bumbling and corrupt Trump machine. And with any luck enough of their constituents will take notice and vote accordingly in November.
3
It's truly ironic the Trump is accused of using government resources--aid funding allocated by Congress to Ukraine--for the personal purpose of smearing Joe Biden, possibly because Biden was the only potential Democratic candidate Trump perceived as a genuine threat, and that now the entire Republican party is attempting to use a long, costly government proceeding, Trump's impeachment trial, for exactly the same purpose--to smear Joe Biden, because they want to undermine his candidacy for president.
What can we as oridinary citizens and concerned voters can do to insist that Bolton and other relevant witnesses are called AND that ONLY witnesses relevant to this impeachment trial--which is about TRUMP's use of government resources for personal purpose and HIS obstruction of justice--be called? If the answer to this question is "nothing," we don't have a true democracy or the rule of law.
3
@Katz
Phone both your senators: (202)224-3121.
1
@Paul One of my senators is Marsha Blackburn. Enough said. The other is Lamar Alexander. I've contacted his office.
I wonder what favors are being offered to ensure no witnesses are called, because favors are surely being offered. Millions in PAC money for re-election campaigns, perhaps.
11
This is disgusting...
How can this massive cover-up effort not be considered a GOP conspiracy to obstruct justice? The Founding Fathers would be appalled at the level of corruption that has spread from the White House to the Courts, to the House, to the Senate, now operating as a single deviant apparatus designed to defy what polls show 75% of "We The People" demand: A fair trial with witnesses and evidence.
And the whole fiasco based on an illegitimate president "elected" by a minority attempting to tamper with his next election? An abhorrent serial liar who has publicly invited Russia, China, North Korea, etc... to engage in the same. And a Senate leader who has gone out of his way to block legislation designed to protect our elections?
At what point does secession of the blue states become a viable option (We disproportionately fund this corporate corrupt non-representative mess.)
8
I'm warning you Republicans. This may turn into a real trial. You better fall in line or truth just might come out. It's your job to make sure that never happens. Just say to yourselves, "cover up, cover up, cover up." It's the McConnell/Trump/Putin way.
4
Seeming increasing likely that MM will orchestrate so that 3 at-risk Republican senators will be granted passes to vote for witnesses. Or 2 plus Alexander?
What a mob of cowards.
Stand up and defend the Constitution!
10
@Jill Are you speaking of the Senate Democrats? I agree!
The Republicans are the Party of Fear. They are scared of their own shadows.
- They are scared of witnesses, such as John Bolton.
- They are scared of immigrants.
- They are scared of so-called "socialists."
- They are scared of Muslims.
- They are scared of Mexicans.
- They are scared of black people.
- They are scared of the future.
Fear is all they've got. It is amazing that they are able to leave their houses. (Some of them won't without packing a gun.)
Profiles in Cowardice.
17
@MidtownATL Sooo, you're saying they're scaredy-cats?
1
@MidtownATL
"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."
1
@MidtownATL Brilliantly stated. Kudos to you!
1
In other words, Mitch: Fall in line with the lyin'....
3
Let them vote.
1
"Bolton speaks" is just another "Mueller speaks" for Democrats. It doesn't substantively add any new facts for consideration it just gets the righteous left another chance to get all excited and boast that "this time we really got him, boy! No way can he escape us!" Sane people learn to accept reality and make a constructive life of it as best they can, others live in torment and a slave to deluded fantasy until death finally puts them out of their misery. Let's just get this over and move on to November, please.
1
@John Doe
What's your hurry, Ivan?
10
Actually the reality is a trial. You may not want that reality or the reality of right wing Bolton exposing corrupt activity in this administration but it is where we are.
6
@Julian Fernandez, the name is Iver.
1
Everybody knows there is cloak and dagger in the but-verify part of trust. But even this is subject to investigation in camera.
@Steve Bolger
And on camera.
Witnesses or no witnesses, the truth will come out sooner or later. I am a little surprised that the GOP senators are so out of touch that they would risk their legacy and for those up for tight re-election this year, their seats.
Again, this will come out. There are mountains of records and surely more people will talk when they feel safe to do so. History will not be kind to those who lacked the courage, to at the very least, allow witness testimony.
I find it revealing that the GOP could leverage this moment as an exit strategy, a way to get rid of Trump. They have time to prep either Pence or another candidate for 2020.
Perhaps what this really shows is the degree to which the GOP has been legally and morally corrupted.
3
@Ian
I'm not sure if many of these Senators care about "legacy." They are more interested in their current position and wealth -- either by continuing as Senators or as lobbyists or as on the payroll of their wealthy backers. If they stick to the script they will be rewarded with great wealth, and their families will live in gated communities, flying private jets, and going to private schools -- never rubbing shoulders with those who might criticize them. Unfortunate!
Is there a way to stop this? Yes, vote them out of office and then get our government to do its job.
7
@Ian
These guys, the right-wing Christians, do not care about this “history” of which you speak. They don’t care about trashing the literal planet any more than they care about democracy. They want to hasten the End Times where heaven (and maybe a whole bunch of eager virgins? I’m not sure. Hard to keep these fundamentalists straight) awaits them.
Meanwhile, they are loving the power and its trappings. The adulation of the masses. The freedom from worry about whether or not their kids will be able to support themselves.
4
Two thirds of the senators do not answer to voters this year, and if the Democrats won all seats up for grabs, they still would not have a filibuster-proof majority in their unequally representative body.
2
@Steve Bolger
Rome was not built in a day. Start with this election and keep working on electing the good ones in the next one.
4
@Steve Bolger :
It is never too early to give up.
If you don't succeed at first, it is not worth doing.
It is not surprising, but still dismaying that trump's lawyers and the GOP leadership are proudly trying to deny information to the citizenry. No need to be secretive during this administration. "We don't want to hear more, and we definitely don't want the public to hear more". I would hate to see how this sausage is being made. "Listen Senator X, you do us a solid on this one, and we will have defense contractors banging on your door. Know what I mean."
5
It is said that legislating is like making sausage and you don't want to watch either process too closely. McConnell is legislating here under a microscope that the Senate rarely gets. When the votes on witnesses are cast they will be portrayed as matters of conviction. But if McConnell prevails and witnesses are blocked, there will be a lurking suspicion that there were some deals made in the background.
1
Everyone should be watching. Will the Senators make the same hideous mistake they made in 2002, to vote for the President's lies? If you think of the Iraq destruction war and its consequences, you will think harder about allowing Trump to savage this office similarly.
5
If facts mattered to the GOP Senators sitting across the aisle, Trump's Presidency would have been settled long ago. Instead, Collins, Murkowski and the other "moderates' will do what they have always done, test the political winds for how they can best sail back into office next election. It is a choice of individual over country and it exposes the weakest part of our Constitution where the tyranny of a minority will thwart the will of a majority. Again.
6
If ever there was an opportunity to dump trump and slide in VP Pence, now is the only time for right-minded senators to change the leadership. While trump will be vindictive, it too shall pass as indictments, law suites and overall trump exhaustion, will minimize his bite. If (R) Senators want to keep their party for the next generation, they have to act now.
2
And why the rush to end the trial? Not merely for partisanship, which is bad enough. But even worse, it's for ego and vanity—so the POTUS can gloat in his SOTU speech. It's unbelievable.
3
In a just world, McConnell would be indicted for obstruction of justice for this scramble to block witness testimony.
9
Wasn't it Trump who said "if you have nothing to hide, why would you plead the 5th?"
Likewise why suppress the witness if there's nothing to hide?
6
Why are Republican Congressmen (and women) continuing to stand behind Trump when they know from watching his past behavior that he would throw each and every one of them under the bus if felt he needed to do so to save his own neck? He is the least loyal of any politician now still remaining in the government. Yet they still support him, despite the trail of corpses of former Trump allies now littering the Republican landscape? If all the Republicans in Congress stood up and defied Trump they could easily win any political battle he might try to incite.
3
The GOP leadership has absolutely no moral ground to stand on. They are obstructionists working for one master: Donald Trump. A new low for our entire system - sad and dangerous times for our great country.
5
Any senator who overtly blocks witnesses should be targeted by Bloomberg and Steyer in their next election. Take out full-page ads in their home state newspapers, networks and online excoriating them and calling them out. Throw millions at the opposing candidate and rid the Senate of these Trump sycophants and traitors. This is the real swamp that needs to be drained.
16
@H. Clark: The Republicans call the whole rationale for the Senate into question by abrogating their responsibility to call witnesses and study documents in a bona fide trial.
3
If you believe that McConnell doesn’t have the votes, there’s this bridge in Brooklyn that’s for sale. Oh, a Nigerian princess also needs your help.
5
Never ever vote Republican again! They have discredited themselves, still spewing Russian GRU propaganda and taking money form Oligarchs like McConnell did from Oleg Deripaska. Never trust them again. Bad faith Fake-Christians!
11
The bidding is opened for votes. What do I receive for my vote, a defense base, a regional headquarters, campaign visits, what do I hear what do I hear.
Nation and patriotism be damned, it's something really important like my reelection that we are talking about.
4
I urge everyone watching this spectacle unfold to seek out the excellent documentary Watergate (2018) directed by Charles Ferguson. The multiple parallels between the Nixon and Trump administrations are remarkable and chilling.
5
The blocking of witnesses would be a real dis-service to the democratic principles of the United States.
Yet, it is refreshing to now see what appears to be some bipartisan efforts to get to the truth.
We should prepare for the worse but hope for the best performance by those elected to represent the people.
1
What are they afraid of?
They are afraid of the GUILTY AS SIN that will be obvious.
But there is a “cure.” It is called the Vice President. The Republicans will still be in control and with someone even more anti-abortion and pro-gun than most are now.
Their problem? They don’t actually believe in democracy and, of course, they lack courage today and are looking at lost perks down the road tomorrow.
7
It's clear now that what is on trial is not Donald J. Trump but USA's Moral Compass and the foundations of its Constitutional Republic.
10
Why not just hear what Bolton has to say and then decide whether to dismiss it before dismissing out of hand because it doesn't reflex the narrative given by Trump, a known liar.
In fact, why not let Trump defend his own actions, let him testify in his own defense instead of hiding behind the seal of the presidency.
6
"G.O.P. Leaders Scramble to Corral Votes to Block Witnesses"
Jeez, this headline with words like "scramble, corral and block" reads like it's describing the KC Chiefs' defense strategy at Sunday's Super Bowl game.
7
GOP senators defending trump’s malfeasance (extortion, bribery) are accomplices not dupes.
12
Blocking witnesses, all to expand and confirm, on the grave accusations about Trump's criminality? How shameful is that, in a democracy worth it's name? Alan Dershovitz, Trump's lawyer, said it clearly... as if he were a 'weasel': "The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's 'job' is to make sure the jury does not arrive at the truth". Shameful indeed!
4
The party that howls incessant about "Law and order" wants to block witnesses in a presidential trial. The hypocrisy is just mind numbing.
11
Fall in line? This is about national morality and the future of our democracy. This is not about Trump’s fate, it is about the fate of our nation.
446
@Gary Avigne And those of us who love this nation are not going down without a fight.
25
@Gary Avigne: No, to the Republicans is is about the Republican Party being in permanent and uncontrolled power.
8
If McConnell wants to do this right. He needs to call the witnesses, grill them, question them and take a vote to acquit or remove DJT. A thriving democracy demands transparency and fair trial. Removing or acquitting a President should not be a partisan policy but an American policy.
8
"Anything but the truth" is the mantra of the republicans. I'm sure deals are being offered to reluctant republican senators to see it Trump's way and to ignore what the American people want. I can just hear it now, "The American people don't know what they want and they'll forget all about it it in a week anyway. Don't worry, Trump's got your back." The American people will not forget and they will not forgive.
People will look back at this time and this so-called sorry excuse for a trial and realize it was the most dark, corrupt time in American history.
7
The middle east(Israel) peace efforts were finalized when J Kushner was last in Israel approving the assassination of Suleimani. That action will haunt our world wide peace efforts for at least a generation.
We are experiencing an age of world tribal conflict. This conflict permeates our governing bodies and is fueled by the greed of the minions of the 1%, these minions mistakenly believing their lot in live improved.
When peaceful negotiation is not possible the remaining option is anarchy in all of its violent deprivation. It in reality isn't class warfare. The 1% have identified the greedy sheeple turning them into tools. The 1% have clean hands and no conscience as their minions expose themselves to the dangers of being vulnerable.
Vulnerability must be experience by all, as a product of accountability.
I too must add my two cents>>>> What do the Republicans fear by allowing witnesses to testify before the America People? Any Republican cover-up is a condemnation of Trump and all those spineless politicians who are standing behind him, even when they know that he is bad for America and bad for them. Lack of political courage will have its own consequences, maybe in November, or maybe during the next decade when young, better educated, more informed voters remember how the Republican Party actively supported a corrupt, self-serving political fraud who began the slow diminution of American power and greatness around the world. How can any one of them stand in front off a TV camera and state with a straight face that Trump did nothing wrong, and certainly nothing worthy of removal from office? How can they look in a mirror each day as they put on their phony personas.
2
You can not persuade Republican Senators without media attention in their home states... and the best way to get media attention is through protests and sit-ins. Senators have to see their constituents screaming for witnesses on local television. Democrats have got to get their acts together and organize in those states with Senators considering a vote to call witnesses.
3
@Tom: I am appalled by the need to constantly donate money to agitate against unconstitutional legislation and abuses of power in the US.
4
Wrap this despicable GOTCHA Political Show trial over with STAT! Make the DNC pay for it too,..Not the taxpayers for a change! Please...
2
I agree that the taxpayers have become overburdened, just by having to pay Trump’s golf tab. Why should we have to be on the hook for little things like constitutionally mandated proceedings?!
2
@Moe :
"Gotcha"?
I saw Trump obstruct justice on TV. I read his confession in the Transcript. He admits guilt on national TV.
Feckless cowards. Every single one of them. It doesn't take an ounce of courage to fall in line behind a corrupt cause and follow the crowd.
Where have our leaders gone?
8
I'm stating to think that the attempts to block witnesses has as much to do with covering up wrongdoing by Mitch McConnell.
10
When Nixon left, the Republicans were wandering the desert for the most of four years. The question is, what makes them all want to fall on their swords for Trump?
2
Just think: 53 Republican senators instrumental in destroying the greatest deliberative body in the world would now see it as a defeat-- a defeat! - if they allowed witnesses to testify at the most consequential trial in American history. This, very plainly, is the essence of the cult that was once a major political party.
9
How many Republicans see blocking witnessess for what it is...making them each accomplices in a crime.
A vote to block witnesses will reveal how many actual criminals are sitting in the Senate.
4
Keith and Mick had it right with "Sympathy for the Devil."
Some of the lyrics in that song really prove life in fact does imitate art.
What exactly, besides money, makes these people congregate around such obvious evil?
Interesting times.
1
I am so tired of biting my fingernails waiting to see if "four Moderate Republicans" will do the right thing - first ACA repeal, then the Tax giveaway scam, then Kavanaugh's confirmation, now this impeachment trial without hearing from witnesses.
Before Trump's election, I used to think that GOP senators were distinguished lawmakers who just happened to hold different beliefs about economics than I do. Now I realize they are completely corrupt and an absolute disgrace.
Nothing I can do but sit here and seethe at this latest miscarriage of justice and total disregard for the public they purport to serve.
7
@Jane Grey So tired of watching Susan Collins perform indecision before she votes with the rest of the Republicans. But it shouldn't be all on her! Every single one of these Republicans who vote for a cover up should be in the spotlight.
We certainly wouldn’t want the truth to come out.
7
@Robert Schmid
Remind anyone of the Kavanaugh "investigation"?
The deal waiting to be had is beyond witnesses - (a) the Democrats agree to Joe and Hunter Biden as witnesses (as terrible and irrelevant as it is), knowing that it will eliminate Biden as a candidate, and (b) the Republicans agree to as many witnesses as the Democrats wish to call and Republicans agree to oust Trump. This then results in Pence (or anybody but Trump) versus anybody but Biden. (Joe would have to sacrifice for the team, and he probably would do so.)
Although unpleasant for all, this deal would accomplish the only reason to vote for Biden, and would free the country of the risk of Trump (as an individual). The country would remain divided, and Trumpism would survive in the racist and bigoted sector of the GOP. Yet we could move on.
1
Republicans "discount" or demonize anyone who disagrees with or threatens their fake world view with Truth. THAT is not the government that Americans deserve, regardless of "party affiliation".
The integrity of our nation should not depend upon blind party affiliation. THAT is extremely dangerous to everyone and is a main cause of the irrational division that we see in Trumpworld. I have heard way too many semi-educated people robotically repeating the Republican mantra of lies without any thought about it. When presented with facts (FACTS that they do not see or near from the likes of Fox and the rabid conspiracy hacks) they go into a trance, unable to address the obvious. Stupidity and arrogance will sink this nation. THEY have caused it, they deserve it - WE do not.
4
To all Republican snators: If you vote to block witnesses, majority leader McConnell will like you, However, consider what your grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren will read and think about you when the school house history text books are written. What the historians write will not be kind to you.
6
@Tom Debley
They don't care. All that matters is NOW.
4
What a glorious spectacle. Mitch & Co. desperately trying to bury the bodies and hide the evidence. It's a GOP cover up. I don't remember anything remotely like this happening during President Obama's two terms.
3
The Senate Republicans are giving a whole new meaning to the saying, "Justice is blind."
For them, it means willfully blind -- rather than impartial.
See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.
4
Headline kinda says it all, doesn't it, GOP?
8
“Disgraceful” does not capture Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempt to prevent John Bolton from testifying. I hope the Democrats will appeal directly to Chief Justice John Roberts. I cannot believe he would passively preside over a sham trial with no witnesses and no new evidence. It would be a lasting stain on both his reputation and that of the Supreme Court if he did so. If there is to be any semblance of fairness and justice, it will be up to Roberts to ensure it. Otherwise, as Adam Schiff so movingly proclaimed, “We are lost.”
16
Mr. Trump wants to repeal the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which criminalizes the bribery of foreign officials. How "perfect" for a man who's every move is corrupt.
What is worse, much worse, is that party politics will keep Trump in power. Trump does not even bother to refute the facts of the case. The effort to prevent witnesses is driven only by the desire that the nation not hear once more how guilty Trump truly is.
Despite Republican attempts to make an equivalent between Carter and Trump, there are enormous differences. In the older case, the President was accused of covering up sexual infidelity. In the present the President is accused of using the power of his office to extort personal benefit for a foreign country.
1
Witnesses are just a Dem delaying tactic.
Like at the Kavanagugh hearing. That Ford woman swore that only three people were in the room. Herself, Kavanaugh and Judge. And there was testimony from all three. But the Dems wanted an "investigation."
2
@Reader In Wash, DC
Kavanaugh (Kavanagugh??) hearing was not a trial. This (supposedly) is. Witnesses get called at trials. Republicans are obstructing. They should be dismissed as "jurors" since they have violated their oath of being impartial.
2
Also a sham investigation (limiting investigation because of fear of what may come out)
Same tactics by Republicans
And that investigation proved the accusations right, and showed the nominee to be demonstrably unsuitable by any definition, yet no Republican cared.
After hearing the incoherent and unsupported excuses that Republican Senators cite for refusing to hear John Bolton as a witness, I have this primary observation: The Republicans in the Senate think we, the voters and citizens of the US, are incredibly stupid.
Please call your Republican Senator and tell them you are not as dumb as they seem to think and they owe us much better. They owe us access to witnesses who were in the room and can provide pertinent testimony under oath. Excuses won't do.
6
Telling Senators constituents are not as stupid as they think is not as persuasive as those voters demonstrating their stupidity by voting against their interests in the first place.
@Pottree
Granted, but at this point in time that is water under the bridge.
Bolton's testimony is crucial. He was blocked from testifying before. For the sake of history, he must testify now.
If the Senate doesn't call him, the responsible people should each be called out for having contributed to a farce. They should be publicly shamed for dereliction of duty. It is hard for me to fathom how these Senators can be such moral cowards.
5
Witnesses will be the death knell to the Republicans' warped case for Trump's innocence. Bring them on! Oh, while you're at it, drag in Ivanka and Jared and other Trump DNA carriers who have abused the office. Don't forget Rudy and Parnas and Igor and Kellyann and Kelly and Sessions and Mattis and Tillerson and Pompeo and Barr. They're going to have to build a new federal prison to accommodate Trump's expansive criminal cohort.
5
Witnesses are needed? Thought Schiff's case was ironclad?
2
The importance of Mr Bolton’s testimony is also for the American people.
We know how the Republicans will vote (even if there is a video of Mr Trump actually shooting someone on 5th Avenue with 500 witnesses).
1
It is! Apparently you agree. Can we go ahead and remove Trump?
2
Whoever heard of a trial with witnesses? It’s just crazy!
1
I know this is no ordinary trial, but the term, “jury tampering,” looms in my head.
It’s illegal to bribe or threaten a juror, and I dare say that one way to influence these jurors would include threats of withholding RNC campaign money.
Does anyone else feel the Trump Administration years have been full of what should only have been movie plots that we all deemed implausible?
5
"Republicans work to hold off witnesses" This line is beyond amazing and what is even more amazing is that it does not spark immediate and forceful protests from the citizenry.
Any and all citizens on trial (and the President is a citizen, right?)are entitled to an impartial jury that will consider witnesses testimony. Society as a whole is entitled to the assurance that trials are conducted in an open and fair manner.The job of both legal teams is to prove their point through these testimonies.
The defense tactic to try to block witnesses from testifying
amounts to an admission of guilt.
1
Clearly, the trial of President Trump is not anything like a regular trial Americans are familiar with. For one thing, any trial I have ever been in as a juror starts with a look-see into the prospective jurors to determine if they can make a fair decision (often the most interesting part of the trial when you get to learn about a cross section of your own community). In DC, many of the jurors have not only decided in advance how they’ll find, they’ve actually boasted about it in public and the judge has said nothing!
Mistrial!
The jury, the prosecution, and the defense are locked in a very public battle over whether even to admit evidence or call witnesses and the judge has said nothing!
Mistrial!
The defendant, President Trump, spends a good part of his waking hours trying to influence the outcome of his own trial and enlisting co-conspirators in his efforts and the judge has said nothing!
Mistrial!
Is the president even assumed innocent until he is proven guilty? The proceedings are so politically charged and manipulated, and the jurors so unreliable, even that has flown out the window and the judge has said nothing!
So, is impeached President Trump getting a fair trial in the Senate, or really anything that could be called a trial, or only a charade of politicians pretending to vote up or down for acquittal?
Meanwhile, the segment of Americans paying any attention are more disgusted with our government than ever.
Who benefits from this?
PUTIN!
3
We need another constitutional convention.
Poling shows more than 70% of Americans feel that witnesses should be called and testify in public.
If McConnell succeeds in blocking witnesses.... the republicans lose the senate in November.
Since they are not going to vote to convict anyway... then maybe this is the best path... let them stonewall on witnesses and pay for it in the general election.
2
New witnesses are not needed. The House managers said their case was "overwhelming. " Stop wasting time, vote on the verdict, and get on with the nation's business.
1
@Reader In Wash, DC
"get on with the nation's business"
Please tell that to Mr. McConnell. In regard to the hundreds of bills passed by the House that are gathering dust on his desk, as he refuses to even bring them up for debate in the Senate.
3
"...pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Even Oz was outed. I have hope that trump will be too.
2
Oh my, what are they so afraid of that they don't want witnesses?
8
@165 Valley Possibly needing to make an informed decision rather than pandering to McConnell.
2
@165 Valley - The truth.
Blocking witnesses, and publicly admitting that you're doing so.
The republicans have no shame, do they?
7
What will the on-the-fencers endure over the next few days? What level of threats, bribes, coercion?
These proudly Soprano-esque bullies will undoubtedly pull out the stops. And we'll probably never know about it.
THAT is where we are.
3
I have a nagging suspicion that there is another shoe yet to drop between now and Friday that will further the need for witnesses. Call me crazy.
5
So nice to have elected officials of the highest integrity. "Let's conduct a 'TRIAL' and do everything possible to block witnesses". Hmmmmm, I wonder if the republicans are afraid of something?!? Such cowards, so embarrassing for our country.
13
To deny participation of witnesses in the impeachment trial of Trump would be unique as far as impeachment trials go, but this would be entirely in sync with the ways in which Trump has conducted much if not all of his life in order to avoid accountability. With him there is regularly a self-serving “open frame.” Take, for example, the longstanding apparent problem he has with paying taxes or, for that matter, telling the truth about anything that would, by doing so, diminish the inflated regard he has for himself. And he gets lawyers (among others, such as fainthearted politicians) to say, with a straight face, just about anything to keep this thing going for him. For Him! The nation’s enemy may actually be more within than without ... with that which is without serving as distraction to worsen the matter within.
4
I’m confused by the Republican position. On one hand they want a fair trial, but on the other hand they want to prevent witnesses from testifying. Which is it? It seems to me they can’t have both.
3
@Jas Kaur: Every cake they take is eaten and had too.
It's a sad day in a democracy when its leaders are scrambling to corral votes to block witnesses at a trial.
10
@GB
It would be sad day if America was a republican democracy. It isn't anymore it's a full blown plutocracy. We've been moving in that direction for the past 40 years.
Look at the amount of money in politics.
Look at the average wealth of a senator or congressman.
Look at the lobbying, campaign financing and super-PACs.
Look at Supreme Court nominees; Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton etc. Basically the training grounds of the elite. If you don't go to one of these schools then your highest ceiling is probably a federal judgeship.
The election of Trump was the point of no return. He was the proof that money, celebrity, and power mean more than competence, decency, intelligence and integrity.
Trump has turned the GOP from a political organization into a criminal organization whose principal objective is to use the federal government to enrich themselves and their supporters.
They are worthy of a RICO investigation. But that won't happen as long as they control the Justice Department.
@GB
It was a 'sad day for democracy' when a Former First Lady decided she also should get to Be The President and no one told her that would be impossible. Dynasties don't exist in Democracies is what she should have been told. So lots of sad days for our democracy and can you guess why?
I read a quote from Rep. Senator Cramer that said that the Republicans sat down for a "family discussion" about witness testimony. It is revolting how the Republicans flaunt the fact that they do not represent the people of their state (or the Constitution), they just follow their party off the cliff of common sense. These are not public servants they are party servants and therefore lack the basic qualifications to serve in congress. They shamelessly broadcast it to us everyday. We must vote them out in 2020.
6
The shock expressed here over GOP behavior would be lessened if the fact sank in that the GOP is not an assembly of independent thinkers, but not thinkers at all. They are simply lock-step lackeys responding in unison to instructions given them by the billionaire owners of the propaganda machine of Fox, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube videos, paid Google links, Bible pounders, and talk radio baloney experts.
Until this brainwashing apparatus is dealt with, almost half of voters will remain glued to alternative facts, crazy conspiracies, and a brotherhood of lemmings.
8
@John♻️Brews - The owners of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube (Google) all find Trump revolting and would not be giving any instructions to the GOP except perhaps explode.
@Mike: Quite right: the providing of the means to brainwash the electorate does not in itself constitute directing this activity.
1
“Impeachment “is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” Mr. Sekulow said. “That is politics, unfortunately. Hamilton put impeachment in the hands of this body, the Senate, precisely and specifically to be above that fray.”
Then why don’t you turn “leaks” into “sworn testimony” with a little piece of paper called a subpoena.
9
"Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, worked to herd his rank and file in line behind ending the trial without witnesses."
Herd his sheep lock step! Because a blind following is what this administration and the GOP need. If they due their duty, uphold their oath, and seriously look at the evidence presented before them, Trump would be gone.
And the LAST thing the GOP and Trump need is more evidence.
Nothing to see here. Keep moving!
6
Senate, Chief Justice Robert, House Managers need to call on everyone that was in loop, that's it, no other witnesses required.
This excludes calling on irrelevant witnesses like the Bidens and the Whistleblower.
9
@Sightseer The House impeachment managers mentioned Hunter Biden almost 400 times. They asked for it.
@Susan - House managers also mentioned (quoted) past and dead presidents too.
What does Hunter Biden (Joe Jr's son) have to do with 45 abusing his power? He in the loop?
1
So the goal is to block witnesses not find the truth. Was that the oath senators took?
10
Let this sink in for a moment; Republicans are attempting to block any witness that could provide clarity on the very trial they are presiding over. The truth doesn't matter. Blocking witnesses who could hurt their guy is where they choose to focus their energies.
I've said it in the past, but it bears repeating;
Feckless cowards.
Every single one of them. They should be ashamed of their behavior.
15
They have no shame; they are Republicans.
What these Republican senators don't realize is that their fierce opposition to the notion of a complete and thorough hearing, including witnesses and documents, is doing nothing but harm to the Republican Party. With 79% of the country believing that witnesses should be allowed, they will not budge from the administration's orders? Are they nuts?
The absolute best thing that could happen for the Republican Party is for it to jettison Trump and start all over again. Then, the nation would look at these senators and something more than yes-men in dark suits. As it is, this is a hollow senate majority: 53 men and women who will simply do as they're told. There is no substance to them at all.
Shame on them.
12
If the senate does not hear from witnesses it is an admition of guilt. Plain and simple.
11
This is looking more and more like those "Chinese handcuffs" we used to have, as kids. The more they struggle, the tighter the lock. Their efforts to avoid justice are the talk of the country, and they will all pay dearly. There will be no escape, unless traitorous Democrats, like Feinstein and Manchin, vote to acquit.
3
@ChesBay
It takes a vote of 2/3 of the Senate to remove a president from office. Mitch McConnell has made it clear that Donald Trump is in absolutely no danger of of getting removed. Trump with the assistance of Mitch McConnell will avoid justice, by simply avoiding due process, and having Republican senators vote accordingly.
Repulsive to me that McConnell is scrambling to block relevant testimony. How can GOP leaders get out there with a straight face and say Democrats should have done this when they tried and were blocked. That there isn't enough evidence while simultaneously blocking further evidence. They know 75% of country wants testimony and evidence yet they scurry around trying to bully people into this cover up. Why is this POTUS more important than the voters and the will of the people? He is a failed reality TV show actor. A groper, liar, and a cheat. Drop him and listen to us!
6
What would Putin do?
7
He done did it.
The seventy percent who live in red and purple states need to hammer their senators to allow witnesses or risk political peril.
4
Is this the same John Bolton that Adam Schiff decided not to call in the House?
3
Corruption fighters question: if Trump is looking to fight corruption before he gives aid and moral support, in light of Netanyahu's indictment for corruption, why is Israel still getting aid and Netanyahu an audience in the oval office?
7
@PKBNYC
You know what they say about birds of a feather?
When will Americans--and specifically, Democrats--stop acting like such suckers? McConnell and Trump are not going to give one inch. Stop buying the idea that maybe a few Republicans will decide they want witnesses. News flash: It's not going to happen. How long are we going to fall for this tactic?
6
All Republican senators should be asked to find the United States of America on a map.
3
"Serious family discussion," ugh. That's one family with whom I'd like nothing to do, with their screaming, red-faced blustering, supercilious, lying ways. Dems 2020!!
4
Assuming that it is true that the White House had the Bolton manuscript since December 30, and assuming that it is true that the White House did not inform any of the Senate Republicans about what was in that manuscript, one has to wonder why the Senate Republicans, after having been "blindsided" (perhaps better expressed as "shafted") by the White House, STILL are breaking their heads over avoiding having Bolton testify to protect the White House, when many of them are likely to pay a heavy price at the polls when people see just how duplicitous and hypocritical they are?
How incredibly stupid are these Senate Republicans? (That's a rhetorical question.)
Enjoy your Hobson's choice, Senate Republicans.
6
The Democrats represent the political spectrum of the US, whereas the Republican party stands for one thing: fascism. Republican Senators were broadsided by the Bolton manuscript, because it jeopardises their own political standing, whilst only benefiting President Trump.
I think they will still acquit him, once the cognitive dissonance has worn off.
It’s as if they don’t believe there is a future. Maybe they know about a comet that will destroy the earth? It is totally illogical and the worst of short term gains.
When in that House MPs divide,
If they've a brain and cerebellum too,
They've got to leave that brain outside
And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to.
W. S. Gilbert
Iolanthe
1882
3
Just how pathetic is the GOP response to knowledge of Amb. John Bolton's book? They scramble to prevent witnesses like Mr. Bolton because of facts.
3
Come on NYTimes. Be truthful and honest. Trump and his gang are all corrupt and liars.
Sekulow and Cipolline, should be called to testify. Bondi, took his money. Dersh was pallsy with Epstein. The list just goes on and on. Look at these GOP senators, My God, what a bunch of boot lickers and toadies. Corrupt to the core and legitimized by the NYTimes. Sheesh.
4
Cipollone, Dershowitz and Sekulow are proving each day what any educated person knows. Lawyers lie for a living.
5
It’s the lawyers’ job to mount the best defense they can for their client, whether they personally believe he’s guilty or innocent. If they are disgusted by defending someone they think is guilty, they should get out of the legal dodge or quit this gig.
I’m waiting...
@Pottree
There are standards in place to keep lawyers honest: they cannot lie if they do know information pertaining to their client's legal guilt, and they also cannot offer evidence they know is false.
Now go back to my original post. Sekulow in particular is lying through his teeth, and he knows it. One rule of legal ethics is to "keep the system honest." We are seeing the systematic dismantling of integrity from the Senate chamber with Trump's lawyers' "defense."
Not surprising...but look at the pure glee for the NYT for that headline...
Wonder if they will print the headline of our President's acquittal and his reelection in November with the same glee...
Prob not
1
“Ending opening arguments, Trump’s defense team discounts Trump’s confession”. There, fixed the subhed for you.
1
Nobody cares about this stupid trial except a bunch of corrupt old men. It has not fooled anyone who has a real job, a family to take care of, bills to pay. It’s just another big waste of time and money, our money, while the things that really matter are completely ignored.
@Dalepues - Then why are you here ?
1
''Who Ya Gonna Believe, Me or Your Own Eyes'' - Duck Soup - Firefly Chicolini, is the Republican defense
3
I love the solemnity act of the Trump lawyers posturing as the wards of democracy. Dershowitz had no bones about ‘undoing’ - as they refer to the constitutionally-assured mechanism of impeachment - the election of Clinton over some marital indiscretions (“ doesn't even have to be a crime!” He said. “Just when someone in a position of power hurts somebody else”, said Lindsay Graham. Now when it comes to bribery and extortion charges, demonstrably against the national interest, they say they’re “above the fray”?
“Wah-wah”, said Corey Lewendowski.
1
I just finished reading an interview (bragathon) Trump did in Davos and he was virtually incoherent in the transcript but took credit for virtually everything from inventing ATM's to sliced bread but took responsibility for nothing: increasing the debt to $23 trillion; threatening to reduce SS and Medicare; to polluting our water, soil and air; to depriving millions of health insurance; to assassinating the principal of a sovereign state; to rewarding oligarchs and major corporations and himself with tax cuts; reducing morale at State; and trying to undermine our independent Federal Reserve; to lining his pockets by steering business to his hotels and resorts; to failing to do anything about our infrastructure; to creating trade problems; to denying climate change.
6
Keep in mind that partisanship is a two way street and an impartial investigation requires both sides to check their party credentials at the door. You can't have an impartial trial if one side has pre-judged the outcome to the point of not requiring evidence. The true non-partisan approach to this mess is to examine all available information before making a decision. Given this, who is the partisan here?
3
@Denis
Who blocking witnesses from testifying?
Why did Mitch McConnell already decide what the outcome of the Senate trial would be fore it even started?
The presenting of evidence and witness testimony is fundamental to due process in a court of law.
Donald Trump has refused to submit documents, requested by the House. Granted, he's claimed executive privilege, but its also a useful tool to obstruct an investigation into any potential wrong doing.
If Trump has done nothing wrong, what is he trying to hide? The very fact his staff put the recording of his July 25th phone call with the president of the Ukraine on one of its highly secure server is self-incriminating. It was out of the norm for such phone calls and an obvious attempt to hide something.
At the very least Trump is coordinating a cover-up of his and his associates (Rudy Guiliani's) behavior. That's clearly obstruction of justice.
3
@Carl Yep!
President Trump has not claimed executive privilege. He just made his henchmen an offer they couldn’t refuse.
"...Mr. McConnell’s comments as a pointed signal that it was time for rank-and-file senators to fall in line."
If they do, they can give up the pretense that this is a trial. If a few Republican senators are willing to vote their conscience instead of the party line, maybe they can salvage some credibility, even if they don't have enough votes to remove him.
If the facade cracks, they might actually get enough votes to make it a real trial where a guilty verdict is on the table.
Or maybe I'm dreaming.
3
Trump spoke that in his 2nd term, He will start looking (as if he didn't already) cut SS, Medicare, SSI, and other entitlements. He said the reason he needs too is to reduce the budget. Of course its those big tax breaks he handed out to the rich and corporations.
Mitch McConnell wants to cut entitlements, he said so himself.
Mitch McConnell is not impartial, he said so himself.
The president is in deep trouble with impeachment.
So Mitch McConnell goes to the White House and cuts a deal with the president.
Mitch McConnell most likely said, I'll get you off the hook, but you will cut the entitlements in exchange. Trump spoke that in his 2nd term, He will start looking (as if he didn't already) cut SS, Medicare, SSI, and other entitlements. He said the reason he needs too is to reduce the budget. Of course its those big tax breaks he handed out to the rich and corporations.
Mitch McConnell wants to cut entitlements, he said so himself.
Mitch McConnell is not impartial, he said so himself.
The president is in deep trouble with impeachment.
So Mitch McConnell goes to the White House and cuts a deal with the president.
Mitch McConnell most likely said, I'll get you off the hook, but you will cut the entitlements in exchange.
1
The Senate should use this unique time in American history to set an unmistakable precedent for any future House partisan impeachments efforts: Without an alleged crime or bipartisan support, the Senate will not support such impeachment articles.
@batazoid
"Without an alleged crime"
1. Mr. Trump violated the Impoundment Control Act, according to the GAO.
2. It is a crime to solicit aid from a foreign government for a U.S. election.
4
I blame the Dems for not forcing the GOP to follow the law. The GOP is SUPPOSED to be against any kind of law and order. That is exactly what their voters want, voted for, and they have stated so time and again. That is what Democracy is. One side wants to obey the law, the other side tries to break it and loot the country of themselves. And the American people have sided with the GOP for a generation.
1
Only a minority in the key rural and rust let precincts. Most of America recognizes them for the crooks they are but gets much less of a voice.
what a 3 day farce. Of course, they didn't need all of their time. They have a predetermined outcome, so what really is there to talk about.
It galls me that part of their defense is that the House did not have any "real-time' witnesses. Now they have one, but no one wants to hear what he has to say.
4
trump and his legal team are now in full "let the voters decide" without witnesses mode. What they are asking is that voters go to the polls without the knowing the truth about trump's corruption. That is unacceptable, and the fact that they are pushing this narrative is further indication that they are hiding something.
The vast majority of Americans want to hear from witnesses, and Republican Senators have a responsibility to do the same.
6
How riveting to note that the one Republican who has a consistent record (in Bolton's case of being a hawk) is now the thorn in their inconsistent Republican hides. I never thought I would say "Bravo" to John Bolton, but I have to acknowledge that he has stood up against Donald Trump's venality and falsely self-serving utterances in a way that shows it can be done in the service of one's beliefs.
4
@Angus Cunningham
Be careful because one never knows what will come out of the arch conservative Bolton's mouth. I for one can never trust Republicans. They are all about money and Bolton has a book to sell.
2
Why do they need to convince Senators to vote contrary to their will?? This is extortion. Taking more time to persuade them to vote against what's best for our democracy is criminal. Let the senators decide for themselves what is right or wrong. That hearing testimony from witnesses could be considered a bad thing is simply shocking. What have we become?
2
Senate GOPers apparently don't want witnesses, like Bolton,
because they seem concerned it will highlight Bolton's testimony.
Yeah, but D's have other ways to highlight, and GOPers' best chance to avoid this problem is to get lucky on cross-examination
and cause Bolton to stumble.
tough call.
McConnell is urging the Senators to get in line. Hopefully some will stand up for the constitution.
3
Based on how Senate Republicans are behaving now compared with 20 years ago, the House should have sent the articles of impeachment over attached to a blue dress. Clearly, as far as Republicans are concerned, the only actions of a president that can rise to the level of impeachable offenses are those involving a blue dress, and a blue dress is the only acceptable evidence. The debased character displayed by senate Republicans exceeds anything written in satire or dystopian fiction.
5
McConnell says he currently lacks the votes to block witnesses.
The key word being 'currently'.
2
But what he does not lack are the 51 votes needed to summon any witness the Republican Senators want to hear from. They can block Bolton and still subpoena the Bidens. Yet they don't?
At this point it is painfully obvious that the Senate Republicans (an even trump's own lawyers) know he is guilty as charged. Their only gambit left is throw up as much smoke as you can in an effort to mitigate the damage they are doing to their 2020 electoral prospects. They have ceased to even pretend they have the best interests of the nation in mind as they govern.
4
The impeachment will result in an acquittal of Trump which will further embolden him and the chaos he sows, and further neuter the GOP members of Congress that we, for all intents and purposes, once relied on to be that co-equal branch of government, the oversight, that our founders envisioned.
We slowly march toward authoritarianism led by a despot.
5
The American public needs to know what really happened and how it happened. No amount of name-calling, partisan brinksmanship, or subterfuge can hide that very real need. As Rep. Schiff said, sooner or later this will all come out in the drip-drip-drip of this leaking administration. The defense crumbled in the wake of the Bolton revelations. Whatever comes, it will undoubtedly look bad for DJT.
3
Republicans ought to realize that if they obstruct justice - in the natural if not the legal sense - defending Trump they will lose their souls as well as the Senate in the very near future. And there will be no one to blame but themselves. The orchestra may still be playing but the Donald is taking on more water than all the sycophants in Congress can bail.
3
@Chris Queally
As long as what they do plays to their base, they don't care. Trump enjoys about 85% to 90% approval ratings among republican voters. If you live in a gerrymandered republican House district, or a state that voted over 55% for Trump in the 2016 elections there is absolutely no incentive for you to do anything else but tow the party line.
And now the whole nations gets to learn if this Senate can fulfill its Constitutional duty by rising above partisan politics to perform its role in this impeachment trial of a wholly unfit president. My hopes are not high.....
2
If there are no witnesses, America will be viewed as even more of a laughing stock than it already is under this maladministration.
7
Republicans Scramble to Corral Votes to Hold Off Witnesses
This has got to be the most pitiful headline we’ve ever seen. Clearly Republican senators feel no remorse for ignoring the oath they swore upon taking office and again just several days ago. Just imagine their reaction if the parties were reversed. It would be volcanic. To quote the superhero from our youth, “Truth, justice and the American way!”. I guess not. Heartbreaking.
2
McConnell intends to abdicate the legislature to the executive. Permanently. The whole American experiment is at stake. And Mitt Romney et al are wringing their hands about how the vocal minority in their state will feel if facts become public. Deplorable.
5
@John
"McConnell intends to abdicate the legislature to the executive. "
You underestimate Mitch McConnell, he is a partner in crime with Trump in every sense of the word. I guarantee you he has leveraged this situation to get something from Trump that works to his and his supporters' advantage.
Mitch McConnell is determined to prevent witnesses from testifying because there are no witnesses whose testimony might exonerate Mr Trump. Likewise, all known evidence supports a guilty verdict. The Republican Senators are stuck with feeble rationalizations and the whack-a-doodle claim that Mr Trump did nothing impeachable by trying to coerce Ukraine into mounting a phony investigation whose purpose was to invent dirt on Mr Trump’s rival, Joe Biden.
Mr Trump was caught abusing the power of his office in an attempt to game the 2020 election, then covering up his abuse. If that’s not impeachable, what is?
Of course Mr Trump will be acquitted barring a political miracle, but witnesses and/or evidence would definitely make his acquittal more embarrassing for the Republican senators. They are already required to ignore or rationalize overwhelming evidence of Trump’s guilt.
Mr Trump is a walking talking high crime and misdemeanor. After they acquit him, it will be fun to watch Republicans squirm when the next revelations of Mr Trump’s ongoing criminal abuse of his office become public. That won’t take long. Mr Trump will feel empowered, knowing that Congressional Republicans have his back no matter how crooked he is or how many crimes he commits.
4
There is no reason why they would do this other than to hide the truth.
There is no reason to hide what is not criminal.
4
Having placed party high above country, the GOP may finally consider that trump is bad for the party. Even a farce "acquittal" to lie about at the SotU won't mask the stench of the GOP's mendacity. The truth will continue to seep out over the next weeks, months, and years. In the long run, the radical, broken GOP will mend faster by removing trump from office. Pence (or Romney) can then lose to a smart, ethical Democrat who places country and planet ahead of party.
3
@MHW
"Having placed party high above country, the GOP may finally consider that trump is bad for the party. "
Now for a dose of reality. Trump has the support of 85% to 90% of Republican voters. Republicans control about 29 of the 50 state legislatures in the United States. Trump won 31 out of the 50 states in the 2016.
In the sense that goal of every politician is to win the next election, how is Trump "bad" for the GOP? GOP politicians that align themselves with Trump also align themselves with voters that support him.
The GOP has no intention of "mending itself". They have a coalition of evangelical Christians, white supremacists, people who hate the federal government, disgruntled working class people and people willing to put business and personal financial gain above all else. They are united and unflinching in their support of the GOP. They have been on this path since 1968 and Trump is in many way the culmination of everything they want and believe in.
Blocking Witnesses. You don't hear that very often in the democracy.
3
@GB
Wake up, America is no longer a democracy. While America was on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and watching YouTube, streaming video or cable TV, their democracy was literally taken from them without barely a whimper for most people.
America is a plutocracy.
I really fear that this is what we have become as a country.
Rudy Giuliani was right about one thing-
the truth is not the truth!!
2
I assume Chief Justice Roberts reads the news; perhaps not. If he does, he should put a gag order on McConnell for violating his trial oath.
1
What kind of govt are today’s repubs trying to give us that allows a president to do as he wishes, with no oversight by congress...even allowing him to obstruct witnesses and other info in a trial? There seems to be no democracy or rule of law values with today’s repubs...and the entire undemocratic repub party seems ok with this. Deplorable
2
"Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s private lawyers, sought to raise doubts about Mr. Bolton’s claim in an unpublished manuscript that Mr. Trump tied the release of military aid to Ukraine to investigations into his political rivals, calling it an “unsourced allegation” that was “inadmissible” in his impeachment trial."
Unsourced allegation and inadmissible? Let me help you, Jay: the source is the former National Security Advisor, who had face-to-face meetings with the president on this very issue. That means a firsthand, credible, material witness — the next best thing to a confession.
Where on earth did you go to law school? Justice is not that blind. And neither are we.
2
Republicans want to rig a trial so they can hide the fact that the president is trying to rig an election.
4
If the Republicans block witnesses, they will go down in history as the party that helped to cover up the crimes of a President. The truth WILL come out, and they know it.
2
It seems all the attention is focused on the "Abuse of presidential power" charge. However, the the decision on the "Obstruction of Congress" charge will have far more importance by setting long-lasting precedent. If the Senate votes to acquit on the obstruction charge, they will be stating that it's OK (i.e., no penalty) for any future executive branch to completely refuse to cooperate with any Congressional oversight. Nearly all Republicans, in their zeal to protect Trump, seem to be overlooking the long-term implications of their upcoming, historic, precedent-setting vote.
21
@Steve The GOP will have no problem complaining loudly about similar obstruction from a Democratic president.
1
@Steve Exactly! Do you think Putin is going to let the GOP slide? He will rig the election for Trump, Trump will become a lame duck then he will pull the rug out from under the GOP to make them all look like traitors. He will show how he manipulated the Senate. Moscow Mitch!!!
1
Perhaps the long term goal of repubs is total control by one party...them?
What's really on trial here is the GOP-controlled Senate. And they are guilty as sin.
Here's what we can do:
http://www.flip-the-senate.org
19
That’s right, Senator McConnell, make sure that your employees, aka. , Republican senators, “get in line”. Block or ignore any attempt to gather facts, evidence and the truth.
McConnell’s employees need no such orders though. Those who haven’t already sold their souls cower in fear of what their boss McConnell might do to them if they don’t toe the mark.
13
A couple of assumptions: Republicans lie as they breathe. The 40% are on board, all in. 75% of the country wants to see witnesses. Let’s break this down. In this particular case what will witnesses accomplish? (He will be acquitted anyway.) The trial won’t be a complete farce? It will be good for the historic record? Some fraction of people in the middle will have their disgust of Republican Senators pushed over to the point that we flip some seats? Bolton will sell more books? Considering the assumptions above, who are these mystery 15%, a third of that 40%, who want to see witnesses? Why? I would really like to use some colorful metaphors for this clown show.
2
@Saints Fan
Remember A Few Good Men?
"O'Malley and Rodriguez, what exactly could they testify to? Probably that they had absolutely no recollection of anything.
- Strong witnesses. - And handsome too."
You can call the Biden’s all day and twice on Sunday. If a trade is the deal, so what. All they will do is embarrass the Republicans.
It’s already a clown show.
It is time for the people of the United States to reassert to Mitch McConnell the proposition that we are citizens of a Democratic Republic, not subjects, existing on the crumbs granted by him or anyone else. Call witnesses for the Senate Trial of President Trump and stop insulting the intelligence of the people.
15
@Dearson
Nothing you or anybody else says matters if they are not held accountable at the ballot box.
As long as Republicans have the support of their base they will align themselves with Trump.
Call the witness. If the conservatives want to preserve any semblance of legitimate power or influence in the future, they truly have an obligation to uphold the rule of law now. Otherwise we will have lost pretty much everything we've fought for since 1776. At least we will know if America still exists as an act of hope and promise. What do we do if it does not?
8
Trump is guilty. The fact that he and his people are doing everything possible to block witness testimony is proof.
16
If Hunter Biden is called as a witness these should be his first words:
"Last year China's Foreign Ministry also granted many new trademark rights for "Ivanka Trump" handbags, jewelry and spa services. etc. She is set-up to makes millions off her dad's name. My law degree, experience and civil-servant working class dad's last name only got me a lousy 50 thousand a month for a short period...so biased and so unfair!!!"
19
@Helen
Thanks for the laugh!
1
Well, I'm hugely looking forward to the series of half-baked, ill-considered, "solutions" that we will see in the next couple of months.
-C
1
This is a trial. Why would anyone interested in a fair trial vote to block witnesses?
9
@stewarjt
You forgot the question mark after "This is a trial."
@Al
Thanks, but I knew enough to not include one. It's a statement of fact.
The current headline for this article on the Times home page is "Republicans Scramble to Corral Votes to Block Witnesses."
Add big doses of general corruption and hypocrisy which extend far beyond the specific example of this trial, and you have all the main things you need to know about how these people operate.
I also find that their approach to the Trump trial mirrors their approach to issues like global warming.
Most rational people gather information and then use the assembled evidence to make sound decisions.
These people decide their intended policy outcome first, and then torture the evidential record to fit the chosen outcome. Their attitude is: "We don't need no stinkin' facts."
9
If McConnell gets in the way and block the testimony of witnesses, then United States will be no different from Russia, other autocratic regimes. More 70% of the public want to hear from Bolton or any other witnesses.
600
@Shim ... I think it makes sense for a Bolton for the Bidens witness trade. It's a win-win for the Democrats. They get the public to hear what Bolton has to say regarding the impeachment fiasco. Plus it gives Biden a chance to vindicate himself before the primary start in February. If it found that his behavior was unethical in the lucrative board appointment for his son, it's better to find out now rather than after he is nominated.
16
@Mark
Vindicate himself against what exactly? Was there a valid investigation made by the appropriate agency or is he supposed to vindicate himself against trumps lies and innuendo? I say, call the GOP's bluff...they have the votes to subpoena the Biden's...then why don't they just do it? I'll tell you why, they don't have any evidence of anything and just want to create a circus sideshow to add to trumps accusations. If they work a "Trade" they can just say that the Democrats agreed to the "deal"
55
@Mark The reps can call Biden anytime they want without any agreement from dems. So why haven't they?
40
"Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, you will fall in line as ordered by McConnell?"
5
Why not Subpoena donnie?
Clinton testier in his impeachment.
6
White House/Republicans argues Bolton testimony is inadmissible? As Trump says about everything he doesn’t agree with, “Give me a break!”
3
Trump is invulnerable.