WASHINGTON, Feb 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump’s impeachment
trial resumes for final arguments Monday before an expected acquittal later
in the week that Democrats have said will be invalid because no witnesses
testified.
The president was impeached in December for abuse of power over pressure
on US ally Ukraine to announce investigations that would have helped him
politically, including into Joe Biden, a leading challenger for this year’s
presidential ballot.
Biden is among the candidates Monday in the Iowa caucuses that choose the
state’s Democratic nominee and mark the official start of election season.
The selection process in largely rural Iowa, coinciding with final
impeachment arguments in Washington, will be closely watched as a sign as to
which of 11 Democratic candidates are gaining early momentum to challenge
Trump in November’s election.
At only the third impeachment trial of a US president, Trump is all but
assured of being acquitted Wednesday, the day after his annual “State of the
Union” speech, which the president said will carry a “very, very positive
message.”
Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate to 47 for the Democrats, but a
two-thirds majority, or 67 senators, is needed to remove him from office.
Adam Schiff, the leader of the House prosecutors, known as impeachment
managers, told CBS on Sunday that it was “pretty remarkable” that senators on
both sides had acknowledged that Democrats proved their case against the
president.
“But I’m not letting the senators off the hook. We’re still going to go
into the Senate this week and make the case why this president needs to be
removed. It will be up to the senators to make that final judgment, and the
senators will be held accountable for it.”
Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Joni Ernst on Sunday said Trump’s
behavior was troubling but not impeachable.
Alexander, of Tennessee, suggested Trump had been naive in asking a
foreign ally to look into Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in
Ukraine, which Republicans have claimed without evidence were corrupt.
But he added: “The bottom line: it’s not an excuse. He shouldn’t have done
it.” – Just two Republicans –
Ernst said it was “up to the American people” to decide on Trump’s
behavior, adding that she would vote Wednesday to acquit the president.
“I think generally speaking, going after corruption is the right thing to
do, but he did it in the wrong manner… I think that he could have done it
in different channels,” she told CNN.
Trump is also accused of obstruction of Congress for ordering officials
not to comply with subpoenas for documents and testimony as part of the
impeachment inquiry.
On Friday, just two Republicans — Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins
of Maine — joined Democrats in voting to introduce witnesses, a practice
they said was followed at every other impeachment trial in US history.
– ‘Wrong manner’ –
A narrow majority of Americans believe Trump abused his power and
obstructed Congress by withholding documents and testimony during the
impeachment inquiry, according to a new NBC/WSJ poll.
But they remain divided on whether he should be kicked from office, with
46 percent hoping to see him removed and 49 percent saying he should keep his
job.
Democrats had been eager to hear from Trump’s former national security
advisor John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and
other key administration figures caught up in the scandal.
Bolton reportedly says in a forthcoming book that Trump told him military
aid to Ukraine was tied to Kiev’s investigating Biden — corroborating the
central claim against the president.
After the failure to call witnesses, Senate Democratic leader Chuck
Schumer said the chamber “did not live up to its responsibilities, turned
away from truth and instead went along with a sham trial.”
Four contenders for the Democratic nomination — Senators Bernie Sanders,
Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bennet — are required to be back
in Washington Monday at the impeachment trial even as the Iowa caucuses take
place.
“The Senate is the jury today but we are the jury tomorrow,” Pete
Buttigieg, who is running third in Iowa, told CNN.
“And we get to send a message at the ballot box that cheating, lying,
involving a foreign country in our own domestic politics, not to mention
abuse of power more broadly and bad administration, that that’s not okay,
that we can do better,” he said.
Trump, though, on Sunday complained again, in a Fox News interview that he
has been treated unfairly “from the day I won.”