In announcing she’ll vote against calling witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial, thereby dooming Democrats’ efforts to get first-hand testimony from John Bolton and other Trump insiders, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said more evidence wouldn’t make any difference because Trump couldn’t get a fair trial anyway. Read story here.
Even though the jury was always stacked in his favor.
Murkowski’s rationalization? She declared, “The articles of impeachment were rushed and flawed.” But she’s had nothing to say about whether Trump’s behavior was flawed.
Hers was one of the 4 GOP votes Democrats needed to get Bolton (and possibly other witnesses) to testify in the Senate trial. With that effort now dead, McConnell has a clear path to quickly quash the articles of impeachment, although he, the GOP congressional caucuses, and Trump will still be subject to the judgment of history.
Trump will claim that Senate acquittal is exoneration, a verdict of innocence, and proof that the Pelosi’s, Schiff’s, and Nadler’s Ukraine investigation was a “partisan witch hunt.” That, of course, is sheer nonsense.
Trump’s attempt to extort Ukraine into smearing Joe Biden is not materially different from Nixon sending burglars to break in to the Democratic headquarters at Watergate. It’s obvious that Trump himself knew he was up to no good. A president conducting legitimate foreign policy doesn’t send a private citizen to go around normal diplomatic channels, fire the ambassador so she can’t interfere, and then hide the records and tell the witnesses to shut up. It was, as Bolton says, a “drug deal.” And the entire Republican Party is helping him to get away with it.
There was never any question of the Republican Senate protecting Trump, no matter what he’s done. They’re afraid of his voters. Constitutional accountability is gone. He could stand in Fifth Avenue and murder a stranger in cold blood, and they would either look the other way or make excuses for him. That’s exactly what they’ve done in response to his Ukraine “drug deal.”
Faced with irrefutable evidence of indefensible facts, the GOP game plan was to attack the process — and, by extension, the Democrats for trying to hold him answerable to the American people. For their fundraising, at least, it’s been tremendously effective; but less so in swaying public opinion, which has trended against Trump since the impeachment inquiry began.
Regardless of the outcome, the Democrats did the right thing. They couldn’t let this pass. Good guys don’t always win, and principle doesn’t always prevail. Our democracy will come out of this much weaker, and your individual liberty less safe.
Before settling on a final strategy, Republicans threw spaghetti against the wall to see if anything would stick. They’ve also argued that, with an election approaching, Congress should “let the people decide.” That’s where this is going. It’s going to be up to us. Go to the polls in November and do your duty.
If you are an attorney you know why Murkowski voted this way. Adam Schiff and Jeryy Nadler insulted the Senators multiple times. Any green horn prosecutor is told nor to insult the jury under any circumstances. When one, two or more Democrats vote for acquittal or present that will be their rebuke to the House managers…maybe Chuck and the Democratic whip can keep that embarrassment at bay.
My grand father went quail hunting with Harry Truman and Harry would be giving some Democrats some hell over this farce.
Absent from your tirade, Mark, is any mention of what Trump did. The GOP impeached Clinton for far less. But you seem to think style matters and substance doesn’t. Of course, I don’t agree with your assertion that Schiff and Nadler “insulted” the senators, either. What is your factual basis for that? Or is this just your partisan bias running amok? That’s what it sounds like to me.