The impeachment trial is supposed to start tomorrow in the Senate.
But as we reported over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted how it was a “partisan farce” because, among other reasons, the trial will be presided over not by Chief Justice Roberts but by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Senate President pro tempore and an extremely partisan Democrat.
He also pointed out the partisan nature of going after President Donald Trump for speech. He said that if they were to start going after speech, then Sen. Chuck Schumer should be impeached for language against Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Paul also has pointed out how the trial is not constitutional, noting that 45 Republicans have indicated that they didn’t think it was even a legitimate proceeding so that the proceeding was basically over before it started. He forced a vote last month on the constitutionality of it last month and 45 senators refused to agree it was even constitutional to proceed. So, Paul said, there was “Zero chance of conviction” when you had that high a number of Republicans who didn’t even think it was right to go forward procedurally, so no way of getting the 2/3 vote or 67 people needed to convict.
Now, even a very powerful partisan, Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), admits that Paul is making a reasonable point, according to Fox. “I admit this is, of course, a matter of first impression and so I don’t think the case that Senator Paul is making is a ridiculous one,” he said, although naturally, he was supporting the contention that they had the right to proceed.
Murphy acknowledges it’s never been done before and the question hasn’t been determined in the courts, but the obvious purpose of impeachment is removal, the blocking from office a secondary thought. If a president is no longer in office, then the only reason you are still going after him is political. But Dems don’t care and are going to spend taxpayers’ money to try to eliminate their political competition from 2024 and/or smear him and the Republicans as much as they can.
They were so concentrated on a snap impeachment against the president, they never even gave him the chance of a defense; just had a vote, with no witnesses.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows also called out the whole process on Sunday.
“Let’s face it, the House did an incredibly poor job of building a case before the impeachment vote,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “There was no process. I mean, it’s almost like, you know, if it happened in the Soviet Union, you would have called it a show trial.” [….]
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on “Sunday Morning Futures” that the trial is “designed for nine House Democrats to do two things — to get political vengeance and have a viral moment.”
Hopefully, the whole effort just backfires completely on them.