GOP Senator’s Warn Democrats On What Will Happen If They Force Schumer’s Witness List
It appears that Senate Republicans during the break have been communicating and seem to be settling on a strategy to handle the trial in the Senate.
According to reports they are looking for a very short trial with little to no witnesses with the plan to acquit the President as soon as possible in preparation for the upcoming general election. The strategy that appears to be coming from the Senate does separate from what the President has expressed he would like. Earlier in November the President said he wanted to call multiple witnesses like Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the now-infamous whistleblower Eric Ciaramella.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said his goal is “to have as short a trial as possible.”
“I think there’s a desire by senators, quite honestly, to get this chapter closed and moved forward,” Graham told reporters.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said that when it comes to a trial “shorter is better,” and that he thought his colleagues were coalescing behind that.
“I think shorter is better for lots of reasons,” Cramer said. “I think people are ready to move on.” [….]
“I’m ready to get this thing and get it done,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). “It’s time for him to have his day in court. … I don’t want to a vote to dismiss. I want a vote to acquit. The president deserves to have due process.”
Graham, who previously advocated dismissing the articles, added that a “motion dismissed will not stand. … I don’t want a motion to dismiss. I want a vote on the articles themselves.”
It does appear that comments coming from the White House has also come around to the idea of saying the facts (or lack thereof) speak for themselves.
“Do we know enough? Have we learned enough after listening to all this to go on and vote on the two very weak articles of impeachment? Or do we want to have a show trial in which both sides try to embarrass the other and put on a, you know, an embarrassing scene, frankly, for the American people?,” McConnell said, characterizing the decision on witnesses.
“Obviously, I think we’ve heard enough. After we’ve heard the arguments, we ought to vote and move on,” he added.
Not one Republican Senator has agreed with Senator Chuck Schumer’s “fair” request for White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney or John Bolton to testify. But, Senate Republicans have hinted that if the Democrats want Mulvaney and Bolton to testify then they’ll gladly send subpoenas to Hunter Biden and company. Only Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has spoken out against McConnell for coordinating with the White House about how the trial will proceed.
“Well, if we go down in the witness path, we’re going to want the whistleblower. We’re going to want Hunter Biden. You can see here that this is the kind of mutual assured destruction episode that will go on for a long time,” McConnell told Fox News Radio.
Republicans believe they could have an advantage because the administration is expected to exert executive privilege to prevent Mulvaney or Bolton from testifying, setting up a lengthy court battle for Senate Democrats.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) made that point during a recent closed-door caucus lunch, telling his colleagues that while Democrats’ witnesses could be tied up in a months-long court battle the GOP witness wish list would not currently face the same fight, according to a Republican senator who attended the lunch.
Kennedy echoed his warning publicly during a Fox News interview pledging that if Democrats want a “full-blown trial,” by calling witnesses Republicans oppose, GOP senators would follow suit.
“If they want a trial,” he said, “my God, we are going to have a trial.”
Personally I would take great satisfaction in a drawn-out trial humiliating the Democrats every step of the way. However, let’s be honest I think we are in new territory when it comes to impeachment. I would not put it past House Democrats to start another impeachment inquiry as soon as the President is acquitted. Republicans in the Senate have already shown they are the adults in the room compared to the whiny childish House Democrats. Plus we’ve got the committees in the Senate that can haul in Eric Ciaramella and Hunter Biden whenever they want.
