Free Republic

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing rising pressure to transmit articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, as members of her own party signal they are losing patience with her delay tactics. Pelosi, D-Calif., indicated to Democratic colleagues — first on Tuesday in a memo, and again on Thursday during a press conference — that she plans to continue to hold onto articles of impeachment, at least until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., releases a resolution outlining the terms for a Senate trial. “We need to see the arena in which we are sending our [impeachment] managers....

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Monday became the first Republican senator to state that he would like John Bolton, former White House national security advisor, to testify at the Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed. “I would like to be able to hear from John Bolton. What the process is to make that happen, I don’t have an answer for you,” Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill when asked whether he would be open to hearing from Bolton.

One of the most vocal pro-impeachment Democratic voices on Capitol Hill said the “genesis” of President Trump’s impeachment began long before the Ukraine scandal. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, one of the first lawmakers to push for Trump’s impeachment, appeared on MSNBC on Monday and was confronted about the president, and how his allies have weaponized Green’s outspokenness against Democrats. […] “The argument goes like this of House Republicans and Trump and his allies: the Democrats wanted to impeach Donald Trump from day one, they cast about looking for a set of facts that they could plausibly use to do it,...

. . . That possibility is underscored by the Times report, a chronology of Trump’s decision to withhold aid to a vulnerable ally under assault while he and his henchmen extorted Ukraine into carrying out his corrupt designs. The report demonstrates in striking detail that inside the administration, the consternation over the legality and propriety of the aid freeze — and confusion over Trump’s true motives — ran much deeper than previously known, implicating top Cabinet officials more deeply than we thought. Among the story’s key points: As early as June, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney worked...

The recent impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives is an accusation that President Trump has committed high crimes — an accusation and nothing more. By law, President Trump is presumed to be innocent of the accusation until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the alleged crimes in a court of law. One of the world's oldest principles of jurisprudence, the presumption of innocence was first codified into Roman law under the sixth-century emperor Justinian: "Proof lies on him who asserts [in this case, the House] — not on him who denies [the president]." The principle was based on...

Former Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake issued a scathing rebuke of those in his party who stand with President Trump during his impeachment. Flake, 56, who did not run for reelection in 2018, published an op-ed titled, "Jeff Flake: The president is on trial. So are my Senate Republican colleagues," in the Washington Post on Friday. "As we approach the time when you do your constitutional duty and weigh the evidence arrayed against the president, I urge you to remember who we are when we are at our best. And I ask you to remember yourself at your most idealistic,"...

At 9:30am tomorrow morning, on the Senate floor, I will speak about House Democrats’ precedent-breaking impeachment of the President of the United States.— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) December 19, 2019

<p>In my 20 years here on FR, I've never been as sick to my stomach as I am now, maybe 2nd to when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11.</p> <p>What the Hell is happening to our country? Is the great experiment over? Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, those little things that made our nation the greatest in world history? The nation that gave us Little Rascals and the Three Stooges? Looney Tunes cartoons? Are we now going to be ruled by Oligarchs, Globalists, and domestic leftists?</p>

Throughout his one-on-one debate with former Congressman Sean Duffy, CNN host Chris Cuomo repeatedly slammed Republicans for their “silence” on President Trump’s tweet declaring that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “teeth were falling out” and called into question the Christianity of Duffy and others in the GOP for daring to defend the remark: "If you want to hold yourself as a Christian, you can’t make any of the arguments you’re making right now.” At the same time, Cuomo defended some of Pelosi’s uncharitable remarks directed at the President. Before introducing Duffy, Cuomo asked a rhetorical question: “should you be defending a...

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said Tuesday that if President Trump refuses to send the documents and witnesses that House Democrats requested in the impeachment inquiry, “We can only conclude that you’re guilty,” sparking critics on Twitter to accuse him of suggesting the president is guilty until proven innocent. "In America, innocent men do not hide and conceal evidence," Swalwell added, in his conversation with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "They are forthcoming and they want to cooperate and the president is acting like a very guilty person right now." Among those objecting to Swalwell's remarks was Ben Williamson, communications director for Rep....

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell struck back Tuesday at his Democratic counterpart's calls for an in-depth impeachment trial featuring multiple new witnesses, dismissing the push as a "fishing expedition" that would set a "nightmarish precedent." "The Senate is meant to act as judge and jury, to hear a trial, not to re-run the entire fact-finding investigation because angry partisans rushed sloppily through it,” he said on the Senate floor. In a Sunday letter, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had called for the chamber to subpoena new documents and call witnesses who had been blocked by the White House during the...

The Democratic House's impeachment verdict is not legitimate. The process was not inclusive to both parties, much of the discussions were held in private, and the result did not follow the Constitutional definition of a high crime or misdemeanor. This illegitimate "impeachment" should not be legitimized by the Senate. This must be returned to the house to correct the methods that were used, omissions, prejudice, and lack of fidelity with the constitution requirements, before it can be adjudicated by the Senate. Don't eat from the fruit of a poison tee, Mitch. Demand that the house start over and create a...

Rep. Maxine Waters, one of the Democrats who have wanted to impeach President Trump since the day he took office, was on CNN with Erin Burnett Monday night and jumped back in time to the Russian collusion hoax. She admits she doesn’t have the facts to prove it, but she says she’ll always believe that Trump and Vladimir Putin had a deal: Putin would help elect Trump, and Trump would drop the sanctions against Russia.

Appearing on CNN’s Boss Files with Poppy Harlow, failed Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said she believes it is “vital” for President Donald Trump to be impeached.

Reading from a prepared text, Nadler argued: “The House rule does not require me to schedule a hearing on a particular day, nor does it require me to schedule the hearing as a condition precedent to taking any specific legislative action.” In other words, he interpreted the rule as allowing him to schedule the minority witness hearing after the articles of impeachment had already passed.

IN THE END, the story told by the two articles of impeachment approved on Friday morning by the House Judiciary Committee is short, simple and damning: President Donald Trump abused the power of his office by strong-arming Ukraine, a vulnerable ally, holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid until it agreed to help him influence the 2020 election by digging up dirt on a political rival. When caught in the act, he rejected the very idea that a president could be required by Congress to explain and justify his actions, showing “unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance” in...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) stated that he thinks up to ten Senate Republicans will vote to convict President Trump, but that there could be “unpredicted evidence” and the number of GOP defections could increase. Blumenthal said, “I would give the high end probably five to ten. I think that’s a realistic number. But, and I want to emphasize the but, we need to keep in mind what’s unpredictable here. Remember the Watergate case, where the Nixon tapes emerged, seemingly by chance…and that was the end of his presidency. So, never underestimate the possibility of...

Three and a half years after candidate Donald Trump bragged he could shoot someone in Fifth Avenue and not lose a vote, a lawyer for President Donald Trump was asked about the same scenario in a court of law. Trump’s lawyer had gone before the judge to stop the release of the president’s tax returns, which the Manhattan district attorney had subpoenaed as part of a criminal investigation. Trump’s legal team was breathtaking in its hubris: Because he was the president, Trump was immune from the criminal laws of New York or any other state. Did the same argument apply...

President Trump blasted FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday morning over his response to the Justice Department inspector general’s report on the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation and use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The IG report found that while there were a significant number of concerns regarding the FBI’s practices in obtaining the FISA warrant and other aspects of the probe, there was no evidence of political bias or impropriety regarding their motives in the investigation. Wray has accepted these findings, but Trump signaled Tuesday he doesn’t think...

The Democrat position in their impeachment of President Trump is that although the President did nothing wrong, he meant to, and therefore they must impeach! Breitbart reported that the Democrat position on impeachment is absurd and have become the Salem Witch Trials. The House Judiciary Report is stating that the President can be impeached for motives without breaking the law –