The Senate on Friday narrowly rejected a motion to call new witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, paving the way for a final vote to acquit the president by next week.
In a 51-49 vote, the Senate defeated a push by Democrats to depose former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses on their knowledge of the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump’s impeachment.
30 comments:
Late Friday night, Senate Democrats launched one final attempt to subpoena Bolton, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and other senior officials and documents. Democrats offered four amendments to the final rules resolution governing the conclusion of the trial, but each failed to gather the necessary 51 votes.
McConnell *draft* resolution:
—"The record in this case shall be closed"
—"No motion...reopening the record shall be in order"
Schedule
—Monday 11:00: 2 hours each for closing arguments
—Tues: recess (SOTU?)
—Wed 16:00: final vote, "without intervening action or debate"
President Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly criticized the Senate’s decision not to call any additional witnesses in the impeachment trial, calling it “a job only half done.”
“In my view, they kind of leave themselves open to a lot of criticism,” Kelly, 69, said in an interview with NJ Advance Media.
“It seems it was half a trial,” he added.
The retired Marine Corps general cited polling to back his stance. A Quinnipiac University poll released this week found three-quarters of U.S. voters supported calling witnesses.
“If I was advising the United States Senate, I would say, 'If you don’t respond to 75% of the American voters and have witnesses, it’s a job only half done,” he said. “You open yourself up forever as a Senate that shirks its responsibilities.”
Kelly said earlier this week he believed former national security adviser John Bolton’s allegations that Trump withheld security aid to Ukraine to pressure the country into investigating 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Bolton, 71, made the allegations in his forthcoming book, which the White House asserted contains classified information. Kelly said Bolton was “a copious note-taker” and “an honest guy and an honorable guy.”
Kelly was Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019. His time in the White House overlapped with Bolton’s for about nine months.
Trump won and that's how history will remember it.
-Jeffery Toobin
Trump lied and that's how history will remember it.
-Jim Boswell
The country doesn't give a shit about John Bolton. They thought he was an asshole during the Bush administration and they still think so.
And no one gives a shit what jim Boswell thinks.
Kelly said Bolton was “a copious note-taker” and “an honest guy and an honorable guy.”
Trump is now disliked by so many who tried to work honorably with and for him.
I never thought we'd have another president as disliked as Nixon. I was wrong.
His polls have gone up since impeachment. Democrats are the ones disliked for all the crap over the last three years.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/01/31/schiff-calls-out-trump-lawyer-cipollone-after-bolton-places-him-in-the-loop-on-ukraine/23914675/
Watch the video. Read the article.
No I don't think I will. The country has seen enough and so have I. This is the result of an exercise in hatred that began ad soon as Trump was elected.
Damn the Three Socialist Stooges of CHT are crying all over this blog.
""Trump won," Toobin replied. "You know, he's gonna win this trial. He won on the issue of witnesses, he's gonna get acquitted, and that's how history will remember what went on here."
Nice find Balls.
Just like that Bloomberg buys the DNC and massive sudden rule changes.
"The DNC is eliminating the individual donor requirement that would have prevented Bloomberg from taking the stage. Candidates will still need to earn at least ten points in four polls released between January 15 and February 18, or 12 in two Nevada or South Carolina polls. Anyone who can claim at least one delegate in either the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary will also be eligible.
“Now that the grassroots support is actually captured in real voting, the criteria will no longer require a donor threshold,” said DNC spokesperson Adrienne Watson. “The donor threshold was appropriate for the opening stages of the race, when candidates were building their organizations, and there were no metrics available outside of polling to distinguish those making progress from those who weren’t.”
How Republicans Scotched the Idea of Witnesses
Wall Street Journal:
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, aided by White House liaisons, exercised a behind-the-scenes campaign in the chamber to keep his members from panicking and breaking en masse from Mr. Trump. Mr. McConnell’s office even advised the president’s legal team throughout the process on which arguments were important to be made on the floor to resonate with certain undecided senators.
“Mr. Trump stayed largely on the sidelines, heeding advice he had received directly from Mr. McConnell to give fence-sitting Republican senators—-who were wary both of crossing the president and appearing browbeaten by him-—the space to make their own decisions. But he engaged in some political saber-rattling with tweets about the need for a speedy trial resolution and criticism of Mr. Bolton, which was amplified by conservative allies in the media.
Said an administration official:
“Once he got over being pissed about this whole thing, he could see the wisdom of sitting still and letting the Senate come to its conclusions.”
___________
Another way of putting this:
He could see the wisdom in keeping quiet about his pretense that he had not lied and thus let some Republicans admit that he had lied but argue that he still should not be convicted.
A letter to the editor:
What Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made abundantly clear is that there was absolutely no valid defense of President Trump.
McConnell’s way to deal with the Senate trial was to keep out any and all who have important answers on Trump’s conduct with Ukraine, including White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and others.
If Trump’s motives and conduct were as pure as the snow, then these people would be clamoring to clear the president’s name, and McConnell would be eager to line them up so the nation could hear not only Trump’s defense, but also that the Democrats’ investigation was truly a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.”
Trump has convicted himself, and McConnell’s stance doesn't fool anyone. It only makes it clear.
Even to those who went along with it.
Adam Schiff warned on Thursday that the constraining of the presidency in the years after Watergate had now been reversed -- to dangerous effect.
"We are right back to where we were a half century ago," Schiff said. "And I would argue we may be in a worse place."
"That argument, if the President says that it can't be illegal, failed," he continued. "And Richard Nixon was forced to resign. But that argument may succeed here now. That means we're not back to where we are, we are worse off than where we are. That is the normalization of lawlessness."
Schiff is a pathological liar and a wanna be manipulator.
As is the lying POS "pastor"
RIP sham impeachment. This is a stain on the Democrat party forever.
And wait till Durham and Barr arrive.
ROFLMFAO !!!
Schiff, Pelosi and Nadler mismanaged this from the beginning. Every non liberal on the country see it. This is a huge defeat for them and they deserve every bit of it.
McConnall is giving Democrats time to whine about an unfair trial after they ramrodded impeachment through the House with a veneer of due process.
Important takeaways:
1. Despite all of their bluster faux outrage, the Democrats never made a convincing case for abuse of power.
2. The Democrats never successfully explain why they needed more witnesses when they refused to call them themselves.
3. The possible racketeering and influence peddling of Joe and Hunter Biden was a legitimate subject for investigation then and is now (H/T to Pam Bondi for laying the case out for even the average citizen to understand).
4. Trump's lawyers destroy the second article of impeachment by pointing out that the subpoenas were never authorized by the House to begin with.
5. At all times Trump's legal team was courteous and professional. The Democrat impeachment managers not so much.
6. Hakeem Jeffries single Handel undermined the entire case when he declared that interference by the Obama Adminstration did not meet the standard for impeachment because the "Steele dosser was paid for".
Spot on posts of Balls and CS
Monday Iowa Cacus likely winner.
Bernie , the Squatters have been out raising a lot of cash and campaigning .
The Three Socialist Stooges of CHT no nothing of the US Constitution and the law.
And the goat fucker thinks lowering of the bar to save king trump is good for the country.....Just like his lying about energy and then covering his old fat white losing ass!!!!!! BWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Paybacks will be a bitch and I hope the next leader of the free world acts with logic instead of for himself.....Idiot.
Hi Dystopian Denny .
Which of the Dwarfs is your choice?
Mine is Bernie.
Post a Comment