U.S. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said Wednesday Democratic presidential candidates should recuse themselves from the upcoming impeachment process.
In a press release, Blackburn said she was referring to four U.S. senators who are vying to replace U.S. Republican President Donald Trump in this year’s presidential election.
“Tomorrow, 100 United States Senators will be sworn in to serve in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Four of those Senators must recuse themselves for their unparalleled political interest in seeing this President removed from office. These four Democrats, Senators Bennet, Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren, cannot sit in judgment of the very President they seek to replace,” Blackburn said.
“To participate in this trial would be a failure of the oath they took to be an ‘impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws’. Their presidential ambitions prohibit their ability to view this trial through an objective lens.”
Blackburn cited the 1868 impeachment trial of former U.S. President Andrew Johnson.
“In Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial, an objection was lodged against an Ohio senator who was next in line to become President, if Johnson were removed,” according to Blackburn’s email.
As The Tennessee Star reported in November, Blackburn criticized U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat representing California’s 28th Congressional District, and his conduct during last year’s impeachment hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Blackburn made her remarks on FOX News.
“I’ve got questions for Adam Schiff. If he knows the whistleblower? Who the whistleblower is? How many times did he meet with him?” Blackburn asked.
“How many times did his staff meet with him? Did his staff work on writing that whistleblower report? Why did the CIA change the rules and allow hearsay?”
Blackburn also had some direct words for how Schiff treated Elise Stefanik, a Republican representing New York’s 21st Congressional District, during the proceedings.
Elsewhere on the program, Blackburn said the Democrats’ narrative on Trump’s alleged wrongdoing is always changing, so much so they have had to “flip the narrative.”
And if the U.S. House of Representatives does indeed impeach Trump then Blackburn told Cavuto she’s ready to handle it as a senator.
“If the (U.S.) Senate takes this up I hope that we do so we can ask some questions. You will see due process there. The president has to be incredibly frustrated by the fact that it has been attack, attack, attack since the day one. It is a reconstruction of a narrative,” Blackburn said.
“The Democrats know they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They know they did things wrong. That dossier was wrong. They know this. We are yet to get the IG report. We are yet to get the Durham report. And I think that will temper some of this by the Democrats. They know that in taking it to the Senate they will provide a chance to have probably a more even view of what has transpired. We also know that here today there has not been anything that would be an impeachable offense.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
[…] The Tennessee Star reported this week, Blackburn said the four senators she was referring to were Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren […]
Good for your, Senator Blackburn!! You are a serious supporter of Conservative Values in this country. I am proud you are from Tennessee and that I voted for you!!