Senators issue tough questions on Giuliani, Roberts and president’s lies at trial
The Senate finished taking questions from senators yesterday, with Rudy Giuliani and even presiding Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts coming under fire, and will today move on to closing arguments.
In the first bipartisan question of the two-day session, four senators asked whether Trump would pledge to stop using private citizens to conduct foreign policy without being formally designated by the president and the State Department – an implicit condemnation of his private attorney, who was running off the leash in Ukraine last spring in pursuit of dirt on Joe Biden and engineered the removal (and surveillance) of US ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch.
Patrick Philbin, a deputy counsel on the president’s legal team, denied anything like that had taken place.
Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator running for the White House asked, explosively: “Does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court and the Constitution?”
Democratic impeachment manager Adam Schiff answered that Justice Roberts had “presided admirably” over the trial.
Susan Collins and three GOP colleagues wanted to know if there was a proper means of approaching Ukraine for an investigation into Biden (as opposed to extorting Volodymyr Zelenksy by phone and withholding congressionally-approved military aid). Schiff said the Justice Department should have drafted a mutual legal assistance treaty if it was serious about thwarting corruption.
Democrats Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden asked: “If President Trump remains in office, what signal does that send to other countries intent on interfering with our election s in the future and what might we expect from those countries and the president?”
Impeachment maganger Hakeem Jeffries answered: “This is not a banana republic. It’s the democratic republic of the United States of America. It’s wrong.”
California’s Kamala Harris cited the notorious Access Hollywood tape to ask: “President Nixon said, ‘When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.’ Before he was elected, President Trump said, ‘When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.’ After he was elected, President Trump said that Article II of the Constitution gives him ‘the right to do whatever [he] want[s] as president.’
“These statements suggest that each of them believed that the president is above the law – a belief reflected in the improper actions that both presidents took to affect their reelection campaigns. If the Senate fails to hold the president accountable for misconduct, how would that undermine the integrity of our system of justice?”
“If you look at the pattern in this president’s conduct in his words, what you see is a president who identifies the state as being himself,” Schiff said in his response.
Bernie Sanders went in on Trump for lying: “Republican lawyers have stated on several occasions that two people, Senator [Ron] Johnson and Ambassador [Gordon] Sondland, were told directly by President Trump that there was no quid pro quo in terms of holding back Ukraine aid in exchange for an investigation into the Bidens.
“Given the media has documented President Trump’s thousands of lies while in office, more than 16,200 as of January 20, why should we be expected to believe that anything President Trump says has credibility?”
But one man whose question went unanswered was Kentucky senator Rand Paul.
John T Bennett has more on that one.
