Joe Biden opposed additional witnesses during the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton
Politico obtained a memo on Thursday written by then-Delaware Sen. Biden in January 1999 that was sent to the Democratic caucus in the middle of the Clinton impeachment battle.
“The Senate may dismiss articles of impeachment without holding a full trial or taking new evidence. Put another way, the Constitution does not impose on the Senate the duty to hold a trial,” Biden said to his Democratic colleagues. “In a number of previous impeachment trials, the Senate has reached the judgment that its constitutional role as a sole trier of impeachments does not require it to take new evidence or hear live witness testimony.”
The leaked transcript of Bolton's upcoming book had renewed efforts by Democrats to introduce new witnesses in the Senate trial in addition to the 17 witnesses that testified in the House before the articles of impeachment were adopted. However, Republicans also called on Biden as well as his son, Hunter Biden, to become witnesses in order to testify about his son's ties to the Ukrainian company Burisma during his tenure as vice president.
President Trump declared "game over" on Wednesday after a clip from August 2019 had surfaced showing Bolton claiming that combating "corruption" in Ukraine was a "high priority" for the Trump administration.
Bolton also called Trump's communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "warm and cordial," without mentioning any misconduct. It seemingly contradicted reported assertions in Bolton's forthcoming book that Trump explicitly told him he wanted to tie military aid to Ukraine to an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden.
Biden was also worried about “drawing out” the impeachment proceedings and how it would affect good ol’ USA:
In 1999, Biden also said senators should take into account the impact drawing out the impeachment proceedings would have on the country.“In light of the extensive record already compiled, it may be that the benefit of receiving additional evidence or live testimony is not great enough to outweigh the public costs (in terms of national prestige, faith in public institutions, etc.) of such a proceeding,” Biden said. “While a judge may not take such considerations into account, the Senate is uniquely competent to make such a balance.”Biden and other Clinton allies — including now-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — lost the witness fight during that 1999 trial. The Senate agreed to depose former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Clinton led to just the second presidential impeachment in history, as well as two other witnesses.
Of course, Democrats will say the same about Republicans, that they were for witnesses before and now are against them. But the truth is that when the GOP was FOR witnesses, there were actual crimes that Clinton was being charged with, including 11 felonies. And it was done on a bipartisan basis.
In this case there are no crimes and there is no bipartisanship, yet witnesses must be heard or the Senate trial is corrupt. Yeah, right.
Trump trolls Democrats with rowdy Des Moines rally
ReplyDeletePresident Trump spoke to Fox News in an exclusive interview Thursday evening from Iowa where he said he’d had a little time to watch the impeachment proceedings despite his lively campaign rally in Des Moines.
“It’s very boring to watch, I have to say that. It’s very boring. I call it the impeachment hoax,” Trump told reporter Peter Doocy. “It should have never taken place.”
Trump added that he has “great confidence in Republican Senators and probably some Democrats" that he would be acquited.
“It’s a ridiculous, partisan situation…I know they’re going to be fair,” he said of Republicans.
Asked if he had any concern about being one of just three U.S. presidents to be impeached, Trump maintained he “shouldn’t be in this position,” claiming that he has done more in his first three years in office than any other president, specifically mentioning tax and regulation cuts, fighting terrorism and rebuilding the military.
The president also dismissed claims that impeachment could stain him in Iowa or in the election. “I’m leading everybody and in Iowa, I’m leading them by a lot – every single Democrat,” he told Doocy. “Iowa’s doing better than they’ve ever done and now they’re really going to start to do well because of the new trade deals that we have.”
“Now the farmers are going to do fantastically well. I say they have to go out and buy bigger tractors and more land,” he said.
Trump added that any polls showing Joe Biden beating him in Iowa and “old,” adding, “We’re beating them all and Joe’s going down, I guess Bernie’s surging.”
Still, he said he didn’t know which Democrat would win Iowa.
Trump also disputed claims made by Sanders that he would strip Medicare from participants.
“I’m the one that saved it,” Trump said. He added that he hadn't touched Medicare in four years except to make it stronger. “Our country being strong is what’s saving Social Security,” Trump said, saying Democrats would be the ones to destroy it with their “crazy plans.”
“Not only Social Security, they’re going destroy health care," he said.
Doocy asked if former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been running negative presidential campaign ads against Trump, gets under his skin.
“Who gets under my skin?” Trump shrugged. “You know how many times I’ve been asked that question? Like everybody that runs they say, “is it true that he’s under your skin?’”
Trump added that Bloomberg’s poll numbers are bad despite the amount of money he’s spending on ads.
Bloomberg is skipping the early states because of his late entry in the race and is reportedly focusing on the Super Tuesday states.
Asked about coronavirus, a fast-spreading virus that has infected more than 9,000 patients in China and killed more than 200 as of Thursday, Trump said the U.S. is working “very closely” with China and other countries.
“China’s not in great shape right now unfortunately but they’re working very hard, we’ll see what happens,” he said, adding they would be making some coronavirus-related announcements within the next 48 hours.
Six patients have been diagnosed in the U.S. so far: two in Illinois, two in California, one in Washington State and one in Arizona.
On a lighter note, Trump said he hoped it would be a “great Super Bowl” on Sunday and he had a feeling who might come out on top, but chose to keep that to himself.
“I better not do that,” he laughed.