Posted on 01/15/2020 12:45:40 PM PST by jazusamo
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) distanced himself on Wednesday from proposed restrictions on reporters covering the upcoming Senate impeachment trial, calling it a "huge mistake."
"There is an effort to limit the press. ... I'm going to vote against that, if I'm allowed to vote," Kennedy told reporters. "U.S. senators are grown women and grown men. If they don't want to make a comment, they know how to say 'no comment.'"
The Standing Committee of Correspondents said on Tuesday that the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and the Senate Rules Committee are preparing to force new restrictions on press in the Capitol during the trial, including restricting the ability for reporters to talk to senators, something that is normally routine around Capitol Hill.
The committee said they had tried to work with the Rules panel and the sergeant-at-arms, but every suggestion they made was rejected “without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee and a 2020 presidential candidate, said on Tuesday night that she opposes the restrictions and has made her concerns known to Rules Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). "No, I don't support it, and I have been in contact with both sides on this issue," she said. "I made it very clear, I talked to Sen. Blunt about this, I think we should have open access for the press."
The Senate isn't expected to hold a formal vote on the press restrictions as part of its process for establishing the impeachment rules. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) did note, however, that Republicans discussed it during a closed-door caucus lunch on Tuesday.
Kennedy added on Wednesday that he does not "support" the proposed restrictions.
"If the media is limited to a specific geographical area so people can avoid them, we're not children. We're grown men and grown women. ...I just think that sends the wrong message," he said.
One of the proposed restrictions would require reporters to stand in press pens on the second floor of the Senate. Reporters would not be allowed to leave the pens to talk to senators.
Idiot, a MSM circus is exactly what the rats want. The Clinton rules period.
“Surround the pens with alligators and electrified barbed wire and you get my vote. “
I say put the alligators inside the pens!
What the hell is wrong with just having a CSPAN broadcast? Thats all they do for everything else.
“Kennedy is a damn smart guy with good common sense. I’m with him.”
I agree
I thought it was Pierre Delecto. Oops!
Yep! Like saying, “I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation”. Or better yet, slap a gag order on the proceedings to keep the Dems from flapping their jaws at their media every chance they get.
I agree...Anyone interested it the trial could watch it live or watch replays.
They’d get the actual facts unfiltered through the leftist enemedia.
“If it is not dismissed the progs will constantly break all rules during the trial and screech “cover-up” when they are called on it and forced to stop.”
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3807623/posts?page=37#37
That is why they need the press there, to spin their planned antics.
.
Yak... yak... yak... Dismiss the friggin issue and talk about infrastructure and the national debt. All these assholes are a bunch of morons who want eternal soap opera and melodrama and don’t give a damn about the country. Just look at them. They all want their face in the cameras, even the Stupid Party Republicans.
The press should be restricted from entry to the senate or house of representatives. Let them watch Cspan like every one else. Any press critter found in the building should be immediately tazed, pepper sprayed, then beaten unconscious and put in solitary confinement for a mimimum of one month.
Concur. Limit the Democrat ability to spin while proceedings are happening.
Let the public see the farce w/o commentary.
Why do you need all the press? Provide them HD TV pumped into another room, far away.
How would you enforce that?
Threaten to make critical entry in the permanent record cards?
NO! absolutely not. Many of them are self serving and or tools.
Mostly just wishful thinking on my part. The yellow-striped Repubs would never try that. The Dems might yell at them and call them names!
So if they are 10 miles away in an auditorium watching the proceedings on TV, like me, it limits their damage.
Why did they float this trial balloon and know they would receive carping, just do it.
The same press that has been intentionally wrong about Trump for the past 3 years..The same press that conspired with the democrats overturn a legitimate election..that press?
Senators like Kennedy are totally self absorbed. He wants camera time and this proposal will interfere with that. He couldn’t care less about POTUS and the 60 million people who voted for him.
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