Republican tactics spark Democratic claims that impeachment trial is rigged
Washington (CNN)Even before Donald Trump is impeached, the partisanship of his looming Senate trial is casting doubt on whether polarized Washington can hold a President to account -- now and in the future.
Democrats on Sunday accused Republicans of subverting bedrock values on which America is founded after Republican Senate leadership abandoned any notion that they had not pre-judged the case.
Furious exchanges came three days before the Democratic-led House is expected to vote to saddle Trump with the historic shame of impeachment over his demand for favors from Ukraine.
The
bitterness underscored how the saga has deepened divisions highlighted
by Trump and how his power over the GOP is causing party lawmakers to
ignore or deny the grave charges against him.
The
President, meanwhile, fulminated on Twitter all weekend, inciting fresh
political uproar to intimidate vulnerable House Democrats and to
electrify the base he needs for reelection.
But there were also signs that the last few weeks have inflicted lasting political damage on the commander in chief as a new Fox News poll showed fully half the American voters back impeachment.
Trump is facing two articles of impeachment -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- over his pressure on Ukraine, including for a probe into one of his Democratic 2020 challengers, Joe Biden.
The
House rules committee will meet Tuesday to discuss next steps for a
full House vote to make Trump the third impeached President as early as
Wednesday.
An already fevered
atmosphere over impeachment deteriorated further during the weekend
after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was working closely
with the White House counsel to prepare for a Senate trial next year.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made it clear in a letter to McConnell Sunday night that he prefers a Senate impeachment trial with witness testimony and new documents.
In the letter obtained by CNN,
Schumer, a New York Democrat, called for at least four witnesses to
testify, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney,
former national security adviser John Bolton, senior adviser to the
acting White House chief of staff Robert Blair and Office of Management
and Budget official Michael Duffey.
McConnell
spokesman David Popp said Sunday night that "Leader McConnell has made
it clear he plans to meet with Leader Schumer to discuss the contours of
a trial soon. That timeline has not changed."
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler accused Republicans
earlier Sunday of ignoring their duties under the Constitution in
prejudging the evidence in an already all-but-certain push to acquit
Trump.
"(Senators) have to pledge
to do impartial justice. And here you have the majority (leader) of the
Senate, in effect the foreman of the jury, saying he's going to work
hand in glove with the defense attorney," Nadler, a New York Democrat,
said on ABC's "This Week." "And that's in violation of the oath that
they're about to take, and it's a complete subversion of the
constitutional scheme."
'Disdain' for the accusations
On Saturday, Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham told CNN's Becky Anderson in Doha that he wasn't pretending to be a "fair juror." He went further on Sunday, saying he wanted to dispense with the Senate trial as quickly as possible.
"I
(have) clearly made up my mind. I'm not trying to hide the fact that I
have disdain for the accusations and the process. So I don't need any
witnesses," Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told CBS' "Face the
Nation."
Graham is among a number
of Republicans who want to resolve the trial as soon as possible, given
the almost certain lack of a two-thirds Senate majority needed to
convict Trump.
Republicans have
done little to directly repudiate damning evidence from senior officials
unearthed by the House impeachment investigation. They have instead
accepted Trump's claims that his behavior was "perfect" and now argue
that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense since it is not a
crime -- even though foreign interference in a US election was perhaps a
fear that preoccupied the founders more than any other. They have also
criticized the way Democrats ran the impeachment inquiry in the House.
Republican
senators seem to want to avoid the possibility that Trump's hopes to
put up favorable witnesses in a televised show featuring his pet
conspiracy theories could besmirch the dignity of their chamber and
backfire politically.
But Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff,
who called Trump a "clear and present danger to democracy," argued that
the Senate should call witnesses in the trial in order to properly
consider the case made on the other side of Capitol Hill.
"I
think there are any number of witnesses that should be called in a
Senate trial, and many witnesses the American people like to hear from
that the administration has refused to make available," Schiff said on "This Week."
"I
think we see clearly what's going on here with the comments of Lindsey
Graham and others, and that is they don't want the American people to
see the facts," Schiff said.
But on
CNN's "State of the Union" Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky argued
that Trump was well within his rights to hold back nearly $400 million
in US military aid to Ukraine over concerns about corruption in the
former Soviet state.
"When the
Democrats say, 'oh, we damaged national security' by holding up for 55
days ... money that was going to Ukraine, I say, well, we shouldn't do
it in the first place," Paul, a skeptic of most foreign aid, said.
Claims
that Trump was primarily concerned about corruption in Ukraine are
likely to take center stage in the Senate trial. But their credibility
is challenged because the President did not actually mention such wider
worries in his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He
did specifically ask for an investigation into Biden. And a crackdown
on corruption has not been at the center of administration foreign
policy in any other nation.
Trump unrepentant
Trump is showing every sign that he will become even more unrestrained after he is impeached.
He
met Friday with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani -- who is just back
from Ukraine on a mission to dig for dirt against Biden -- the exact
conduct that helped trigger the impeachment drama in the first place.
And
on a weekend Twitter tear, the President picked up on a new Republican
line of defense that there was no case to answer because he asked
Zelensky to do "us" a favor -- as in the US -- rather than a personal
favor for himself.
"A PERFECT phone
call. 'Can you do us (not me. Us is referring to our Country) a favor.'
Then go on to talk about 'Country' and 'U.S. Attorney General,' " Trump
wrote on Twitter. "The Impeachment Hoax is just a continuation of the
Witch Hunt which has been going on for 3 years. We will win!"
Trump's
claim is however undermined because his request to Zelensky referred to
a conspiracy theory that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2020
election.
It
is not clear why that favor -- relating to a personal political
obsession of Trump -- would be in the national interest. A conventional
interpretation of US interests in Ukraine would center on supporting a
government under siege from Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Trump also tried to persuade Democratic New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew,
who is against impeachment, to switch sides. If Van Drew crosses the
floor, he would be greeted as a hero by Republicans. But Democrats will
argue he is quitting because his opposition to impeachment has alienated
his own party supporters. Five of Van Drew's staffers quit Sunday night,
saying they can "no longer in good conscience continue our service,"
according to a resignation letter obtained by CNN. A sixth also
resigned.
It is not a surprise that
partisan feelings are shaping the impeachment end game -- after all, by
its nature, it is a political process prone to shaping by public
opinion.
And Democrats have offered
Republicans an opening by declining to challenge Trump's refusal to
provide key witnesses and testimony under a claim of absolute executive
privilege in the courts, reasoning it would take too long.
Yet
the partisan approach of the GOP underscores the fact that for most
Republicans, even admitting any kind of wrongdoing by the President
would be akin to political suicide.
That's
why this impeachment drama -- unlike Bill Clinton's 20 years ago -- has
not involved calls for an apology from the President for his own side
or any discussion about whether he has transgressed, albeit in a way
that does not merit impeachment.
The
absence of such discussion is one reason why this impeachment showdown
could have a long legacy as it will effectively enshrine a precedent of a
President using executive power to lean on a foreign country for his
personal political gain.
And the
Republican chorus that Trump did nothing wrong and a refusal to even
examine an impeachment case suggests a blueprint for future scandals.
The party of an unrestrained President could henceforth spare him or her
from scrutiny as long as they control the Senate and there is no super
majority to convict.
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