Asked by the media if Trump committed a crime, Ohio senator Rob Portman said he believed what Trump did in regards to withholding aid to Ukraine and asking that country to investigate his political opponent, was wrong but he could not see why he should be removed from office.

“Some of the things that were done were not appropriate… but that’s a very different question than removing someone from office who was duly elected in the middle of a presidential election,” Sen. Portman said.

Other Republican senators simply want to end the trial as quickly as possible. Texas senator John Cornyn said extending the trial will stall everything else in the U.S. Senate.

“There’d be nothing else we could do in the interim. It would basically hijack the senate. In the meantime, the Senate can’t do anything else; we can’t confirm judges, we can’t have hearings, we can’t even introduce legislation.”

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming argued that he would hear it from his constituents at home if he allows the trial to continue.

“Every day we spend doing this, we’re not doing — I’m a doctor. I want to lower the cost of insulin. I want to deal with this surprise medical billings issue. … But because we’re stuck with this, and the longer you are going, and the longer you’re dealing with witnesses, the harder it is to get to the things that I hear about in Wyoming.”

But Democrat House Manager Adam Schiff of California reminded the Republican senators what is at stake in the trial.

Truth. And right.

“If right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the framers were. It doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is,” Schiff said. “If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost. If the truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost.”

The post GOP Senators: Yes, What Trump Did was Wrong. So What? appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Take the trial of president Donald Trump. To say Sen. Graham has flip-flopped is to be kind to him.

He has become Trump’s lap dog.

He said last month that he had made up his mind on the impeachment proceedings and he did not want to see any witnesses. But in 1999 during the impeachment and trial of president Bill Clinton, Sen. Graham wanted every witness to get the chance to testify.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in December, Graham said “I think what’s best for the country is to get this thing over with. I have clearly made up my mind. I’m not trying to hide the fact that I have disdain for the accusations in the process.”

“What you’re doing in the House is bad for the presidency. You’re impeaching the president of the United States in a matter of weeks, not months. I want to end it. I don’t want to legitimize it. I hate what they’re doing.”

“I want to end it. I have nothing but disdain for this.”

That was Graham in 2019.

This was Graham in 1999. He was a House Manager during the trial of president Bill Clinton.

“In every trial that there’s ever been in the Senate regarding impeachment, witnesses were called.”

He told the nation that if witnesses were prevented from testifying in 1999, it would leave all the work up to the House Judiciary Committee prior to the trial in the senate.

Graham said the “big problem” with that was that “impeachment in the House is not the trial. The trial takes place in the Senate, and without witnesses, the House won’t be able to present its case.”

“That would be bad for impeachment law, that would be against precedent and I hope that doesn’t happen here,” he said in 1999.

He characterized witness-free impeachment as “three days of lawyers talking to each other.”

“When you have a witness who was there, who was engaged in it, who was in the middle of it, telling you about what they were doing and why, that’s a totally different case ― and it’s the difference between getting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

He added that “the process is just as important as the result.”

What changed? Two things. In 1999 it was a Democrat being impeached by the Republicans. In 2020 it is a Republican being impeached and tried, and Lindsey Graham has become a lap dog to Donald Trump, incapable of telling the truth.

The post With Lindsey Graham in Charge, Who Gives a Damn About the Truth? appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Schiff said that while Republicans can choose to turn a blind eye to the facts in front of them, they will eventually be forced to confront the truth.

“The truth will come out — the question is, will it come out in time?” the California Democrat asked his fellow GOP lawmakers.

During a late night rancorous session on the Senate floor, the California Democrat drove home the point that Republicans are thwarting a fair trial and preventing the American people from seeing evidence and hearing from witnesses.

“Yeah, we’re making it hard for you, we’re making it hard for you to say no,” Adam Schiff told the senators.

“We making it hard for you to say ‘I don’t want to hear from these people, I don’t want to see the documents,’ … Our job is to make it hard to deprive the American people of a fair trial,” Schiff said.

At one point Chief Justice John Roberts was forced to intervene to stop the ugly exchanges.

“I think it is appropriate for me to admonish both the house managers and the president’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Roberts said.

Democrats want to call several witnesses including former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Republicans led by leader Mitch McConnell have repeated rejected the idea.

The post Trump Trial: Schiff Warns Republicans That the Truth Will Come Out appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Period. End of story.

So why the charade in the U.S. Senate? Simple. Republicans want to be able to say they tried Donald Trump and found no reasons to convict him.

Let’s look at the facts as we know them today.

Did Trump committed impeachable offenses?

• Trump sought the help of Ukraine to influence the outcome of the U.S. elections
• Trump lied about his actions relating to Ukraine
• Trump obstructed U.S. Congress
• Trump abused the powers of his office
• Trump worked with Russia to win the 2016 presidential elections
• Trump intends to work with Russia to win the upcoming 2020 presidential elections

Although these facts appear to be incontrovertible, the Republican Party has made up their minds that they will not consider any evidence, entertain and witnesses or listen to any facts.

South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham said he has dismissed the whole trial.

“I’ve written the whole process off,” Graham said, according to CBS News and The Associated Press. “I think this is a bunch of B.S.”

On Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian leader, Graham said he doesn’t care.

“I don’t care what anybody else says about the phone call,” he said Tuesday. “The phone call, I’ve made up my own mind, is fine.”

So far, no Republican senator has said he or she is open to an open, free and fair trial.

The post Trump Trial: The BIG Republican Cover-Up is On appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.