U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told The Washington Post, “I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” in regard to a question about impending impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
The newspaper spoke to a number of Republican senators in a story that ran Monday, which is available here. The story cast Republican senators as “lost and adrift” and frustrated in their defense of the president.
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
This is from the same newspaper that called ISIS terrorist leader and serial rapist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi an “austere religious scholar.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday announced an impending floor vote on impeachment, The Tennessee Star reported.
“Dear Democratic Colleague,” Pelosi’s new release began. “For weeks, the President, his Counsel in the White House, and his allies in Congress have made the baseless claim that the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry ‘lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding.’ They argue that, because the House has not taken a vote, they may simply pretend the impeachment inquiry does not exist.”
The tone of The Washington Post’s story is in contrast to a resolution Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced last week.
Graham introduced a resolution condemning the House of Representatives’ closed door impeachment inquiry.
“Every American should be disturbed by what is taking place in the House of Representatives regarding the attempt to impeach President Trump,” said Graham. “One of the cornerstones of American jurisprudence is due process – the right to confront your accuser, call witnesses on your behalf, and challenge the accusations against you. None of this is occurring in the House.”
Alexander issued a statement Friday about his being a co-sponsor to Graham’s resolution:
“I have co-sponsored the Graham resolution because in an impeachment process the American people above all expect it to be fair.
“House Democrats might want to stop and take a look at how the House Democratic majority bent over backwards to include Republicans and the President’s representatives in the 1974 Nixon impeachment, and compare that with the one-sided, largely secret inquiry they are conducting today.”
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
The Senate repubs will do exactly what Mitch wants them to do or face the consequences.