‘I Think We’ve Heard Enough’: Senate Republicans Now Coalescing Behind an Impeachment Trial Strategy

Red State ^ | 9:30 pm on December 28, 2019 | Nick Arama

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Reports are that Senate Republicans are now coalescing behind an impeachment trial strategy.

According to The Hill, they lining up behind the idea of having a short trial with few or no witnesses, with the hope that President Donald Trump will get a quick acquittal and clear the decks for the election.

Some who previously spoke about immediately dismissing the matter, now appear to be agreeable to the short trial idea.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said his goal is “to have as short a trial as possible.”

“I think there’s a desire by senators, quite honestly, to get this chapter closed and moved forward,” Graham told reporters.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said that when it comes to a trial “shorter is better,” and that he thought his colleagues were coalescing behind that.

“I think shorter is better for lots of reasons,” Cramer said. “I think people are ready to move on.” [….]

“I’m ready to get this thing and get it done,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). “It’s time for him to have his day in court. … I don’t want to a vote to dismiss. I want a vote to acquit. The president deserves to have due process.”

Graham, who previously advocated dismissing the articles, added that a “motion dismissed will not stand. … I don’t want a motion to dismiss. I want a vote on the articles themselves.”

Sen. Josh Hawley said that if the White House was amenable to not calling witnesses, he was ready to vote right away. “I’m ready to vote now,” Hawley said. “I think the articles are a joke.”

[9YearLurker]

Exactly.

[napscoordinator]

Oh brother. He’s not going to be kicked out. That’s all that matters in this mess. If trump wanted to defend himself, he would have went in front of the house. That’s where the evidence is discussed.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Democrats are demanding four witnesses.

OK. Four witnesses:

Eric Ciaramella
Hunter Biden
President Zelensky
And the prosecutor who was fired because of Joe Biden's blackmail.

[ETCM]

Never happy. I think republicans are doing great. Some of you guys really need suicide watches. So depressing.

Mitch doesn't have the votes to hold a wider indictment of the Democrats, the deep state or anything else beyond the articles of impeachment. He has the votes to hold a quick, narrowly focused trial and acquittal. The rest is a bunch of silly chest thumping. If Trump is ever able to wrest back control of the executive branch, he can address the crimes against himself and the constitution. Until then, a quick acquittal is all he's got.

[taxcontrol]

I am of the opinion that the best strategy would be to:

1) change the Senate rules to require that the House present articles of Impeachment no more than 60 days from passage of the House. If that does not happen, then the charges are automatically dismissed with prejudice and the accused exonerated.

2) Further, that presenting the articles of Impeachment requires the identification of no less than 4 managers who will be responsible for presenting their evidence to the
Senate Judiciary committee

3) The rules of evidence used by the House Judiciary committee will be used in the Senate with rules and restrictions previously afforded the majority will now be afforded to the minority and vica versa.

4) The have the Senate Judiciary recognize the Presidents legal team to present evidence. Let the President have his shot at the committee level.

5) When they are all done, the Senate Judiciary committee can recommend a vote before the full Senate and pass on their recommendations regarding their findings. Including any findings of criminal behavior and recommendations of expulsion of any Senator who violated the ethics of the Senate by attempting or supporting the coup.

[Democrats hate too much]

Rubio too. Another 100% total fake.

[pepsi_junkie]

Sinema, Manchin and Jones vote not guilty.

Sinema has been a real surprise to me. as an outsider looking in she looked to be a far out lefty wingnut when she was running for the Senate. But starting with her refusal to join the "Kavanaugh is a rapist" attacks I've noted her plotting her own course that isn't always in lockstep with the dem agenda. Probably just pandering (like Manchin does) but I'll take it. Hell, AZ has a history of sending some of the worst Senators in (Flake and McCain, notably) so if they elected a dem who actually votes as a moderate, she's probably close to as good as we'd have gotten even if a pubbie won.

[SmokingJoe]

Sinema has been a real surprise to me.

Same here. And I still don't get it. She is one of the few Senators who has turned out to be much better in action than when she was running for office.
Right now she is actually sounding much better on impeachment than the really sick Jeff Flake that she replaced. Flake is already demanding that GOP Senators vote to remove President Trump from office.

[dware]

Immediate dismissal is the only proper response. Participation in any bogus trial of unconstitutional articles and the senators have broken their oaths.

[ballplayer]

Move on from impeachment BUT NOT FROM BIDEN’S CORRUPTION,OR HILLARY’S IN THE UKRAINE!Senators who want to just move on are complicit in the corruption,just moving on gives Biden a club to hammer President Trump.Billions of dollars of tax payers money that found its way into Biden’s and Senators and congressmans bank accounts needs to be exposed

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The trial should be introduced and dismissed as quickly as possible. It's nonsense and should be treated as such.

Agreed. I don’t understand why the Senate waits for a “Mother may I?” from Nancy. The House acted, it’s either an impeachment or it isn’t.

The Senate can simply, by majority vote, state the obvious fact that nothing the House alleged justifies even censure of the president, never mind removal. Since the Senate doesn’t even have to hold a trial unless it votes to, Nancy can deliver the Articles to the Senate after that vote, or not. If she does, McConnell can just ignore her.

Then hang Joe's and Hillary's and Barrack's dirty underwear on the line.

Precisely.

And conduct Judiciary Committee hearings about FISA abuse.