Posted on 02/01/2020 8:34:45 AM PST by Kaslin
Throughout the impeachment trial, all eyes have been on four senators – Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) – who are considered "toss-up" voters. It's hard to gauge exactly how they plan to vote, especially when those votes are along party lines. On Friday night, Collins, Murkowski and Alexander all voted along with their Republican colleagues to block new witnesses, something the House Impeachment Managers have pushed from the start.
According to Alexander, the House impeachment team proved President Donald Trump withheld more than $300 million in military aid to Ukraine as a means of forcing Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, for corruption. Alexander believes Trump's actions were "inappropriate," but they certainly aren't impeachable, USA Today reported.
“I think it was a mistake ... I think he shouldn't have done it,” Alexander explained. “abuse of power is such a vague term. It doesn't mean anything.”
Even though Alexander said the House Democrats proved that correlation between the investigation and the military aid being withheld, he believes President Trump deserves to be acquitted. He took an issue with the articles of impeachment that came from the House simply because it was a partisan effort, something that draws a stark contrast to the impeachments of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
"I was reminded during the arguments of how the founders, James Madison particularly, felt there should never ever be a wholly partisan impeachment,” Alexander told USA Today.
In his mind, Trump's conduct didn't meet the high crimes and misdemeanors clause to remove him from office.
“We're pretty accustomed in our everyday life to being able to distinguish between things that are inappropriate and things that deserve capital punishment,” the Tennessee senator explained. “When you don't give capital punishment to somebody who left the scene of an accident, you disapprove of what they did. You may penalize them in the next election, but you don't throw them out of office, and tell the American people they can't vote for him in the election that's already underway.”
The three things that sealed Alexander's decision: the articles of impeachment being partisan; the bar for impeachment being lowered; and how close we are to the 2020 election.
Coming to the decision is something Alexander said was "gradual" and happened over the course of the arguments throughout the week. He tried to look at the evidence and be impartial, just like a judge or juror is supposed to be. And he knows his vote – the deciding vote in whether or not to call for additional witnesses – will go down in history.
"I hope what they'll remember is I listened to carefully, insisted that we heard the case, and did what I thought was right," he explained.
Although he received numerous calls and emails from those on both sides of the aisle, he said he never heard from the White House or felt pressured by members of his party.
"He knows better than to try to tell me how to vote," Alexander said of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, someone he's known for 50 years.
At the end of the day, the Tennessee senator said he looked at the evidence as an impartial juror and came to his decision.
"There wasn't any way I could, you know, maneuver my way through that, so the only way I could do it was just listen and make decisions," he said. "And what I decided was, you did it. You shouldn't have done it. But under the Constitution, the people should decide when the President does something that's simply inappropriate. That's for the voters.
DOJ
Pelosi will introduce new articles. She isn’t done. My advice to Trump, hold a major rally in California. Ask them what have they got to lose.
Collins’ vote was driven by her own personal interests and benefit.
Gee, I thought that was a bad thing.
The jury does not get to call or question witnesses in any trial. The vote provided a constitutional outcome, however, it is astonishing that so many voted in favor of witnesses in light of the fact that the overwhelming majority are attorneys and should know better.
I am not aware of his name being on bridges and school unlike that late KKK Grand Poopa Senator from West Virginia.
Partisan impeachment will become the new norm. It will take a Constitutional Amendment to stop it. say 25% support from the minority party to make any Articles of Impeachment legal. Just a thought.
Tennessee
Providing the nation with moderate fence splitting senators since the 1850s
Y’all can thank me later
/s
He’s hardly stupid
He’s just Howard Baker jr
Excellent replies in this thread, both of them.
Alexander and.... Corker. Boy what a pair of bozos. Greedy ones also. For a number of years during oba-maumao’s regime of crooks, there was a large rumor that both TN Senators had approached major business people about a quiet partnership in re: TVA private ownership. Why Corker later was such a jerk to Trump.
This was circulated by oba-mau-mao crooks to buy silence, alongside the TVA’s sale offer of the never completed nuclear plant, Bellefonte, to Franklin Haney (bigtime democrat donor, who the clintons got to donate 1 million to Trumps inauguration— out of the blue- he never has donated to republicans)— TVA backed out of the sale to a private individual with no nuclear license and who did not, in the end have Energy Dept backing. But the influence of the sale was “funny money” kicked back from oba maumao’s and clinton’s Uranium One consortium, masked through the Energy Dept as fronting a loan to him for the purchase as a way to launder money from the Russian purchase of US uranium.
Alexander and Corker were to expand this all into a full handoff of TVA (involvement of Oak Ridge as a refiner of nuclear fuel put an end to their influence as the Uranium One deal was being exposed, and thus the Energy Dept.) Haney paid trump attorney Michael Cohen 10 million to grease the skids for the Energy Dept. loan from newly elected Trump admin. All of which is wrapped up with a general “offloading” of TVA by the Energy Dept! Amazing corrupt crony Senators neither of whom were Trump supporters.
Story is near the bottom of the blog article here under “Bellefonte”, from 2018:https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/10/common-thread-the-clinton-probe-by-jeff-sessionss-remote-posse-and-a-nuclear-power-plant/
I guess I am just tired of the backstabbing.
the dems will dig themselves a deeper hole.
“According to Alexander, the House impeachment team proved President Donald Trump withheld more than $300 million in military aid to Ukraine”.
They got the aid. The word “withheld” is inaccurate. Paused might be more accurate.
And furthermore, some of tje wotnesses and prosecutors lied, and were involved in the corruption. Rudy’s 3 part series with OAN ...found on youtube, is an eye opener. If members of a President’s people are involved in corruption, he’s duty bound to investigate it and stop it.
Did you know that the American Embassy in Ukrain runs their legal system?
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