Of course, the editorial board of the NY Times has already convicted Trump, so, of course they want the Senate to be serious
Take Impeachment Seriously, Senators
It would be nice to have faith that, as the Senate prepares to receive the articles of impeachment against President Trump and gears up for its role in this rare and momentous process, it will do the right thing. Confronted with a mountain of evidence that an American president abused his power by shaking down a vulnerable country for his own personal gain — and then stonewalled a congressional investigation into his behavior — senators should spare no effort in conducting a fair and thorough trial, complete with witnesses and documentary evidence.
Nice that they’ve already decided, but, then, this is a movement that started even before Donald Trump was elected. This is the same editorial board (obviously, many different people now, but the view from the paper hasn’t changed from bat guano insane leftism) which supported investigating Bill Clinton but not impeaching him, despite actual violations of the law (suborning testimony, witness tampering, perjury). Bill was of their Party. Trump is not. It’s that simple.
Alas, in 2020, the Senate is led by Mitch McConnell, who has demonstrated time and again that he is more concerned with covering for Mr. Trump than protecting the integrity of the office Mr. Trump holds, the security of the nation he leads or the Constitution he swore to defend.
Same paper was never concerned with Operation Fast and Furious, IRS targeting, avoiding the duly elected Legislative branch and going with Constitutionally dubious executive orders and rules, etc, nor were they concerned with Hillary Clinton violating numerous State Department rules, government rules, and national security law that would put you or I in jail.
With few exceptions, Mr. McConnell has enjoyed the lock-step support of his caucus. So it has been notable to hear over the past few days a hint of dissension within the ranks, as a handful of Republican senators, including Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, have indicated that they oppose a straight-up dismissal of the charges against the president.
Is this like the lock-step support in the House for Nancy Pelosi?
Mr. McConnell, meanwhile, has yet to show that he takes any part of this process seriously. He has already announced that he will work hand-in-glove with the Trump administration as it defends the president and that he will blithely violate the oath of impartiality he is required to take. On Tuesday, Mr. McConnell mocked the House Democrats’ calls for more witnesses to testify, saying they can’t claim that the case against Mr. Trump is so strong as to be impeachable, and yet “also so weak that the Senate needs to go fishing.—
Impeachment is a political process. This is what Democrats want from the start, since they can’t beat him at the ballot box. The House hearings were so super serious that due process was thrown out the window. This was all a sham, a method to cancel out the results of the 2016 election. That the House sat on the articles of impeachment for weeks and weeks after telling us that was a danger to the nation and such.
There is even time for President Trump to behave like, well, a president. Each of the last two presidents to face impeachment proceedings — Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon — complied with congressional subpoenas, if grudgingly. The question must be asked again: If Mr. Trump is so confident that he did nothing wrong, why does he refuse to let these officials testify or turn over key documents? And if Mr. McConnell is so confident that his party’s leader will be vindicated, why fight so hard to prevent the full truth from coming out?
So much for the 5th Amendment. So much for due process. This is how deranged Democrats are.
Read: NY Times Wants Senators To Do The Right Thing On Impeachment Or Something »