Politics

Democrats Are Already Delegitimizing Senate Impeachment Trial

(Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

Congressional Democrats are already undermining the legitimacy of a likely impeachment trial in the Senate, which is widely expected not to convict President Donald Trump.

The Democratic-controlled House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against the president, which would send the articles over to the Republican-controlled Senate. The House needs a simply majority to impeach the president; however, two-thirds of the Senate is required to remove the president from office.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he doesn’t expect any Republican senators to vote for removing Trump from office, and Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted that impeachment will “die quickly” in the Senate.

With the impeachment effort likely to fall short in the Senate, many Democrats are already working to discredit the anticipated result. Democrats have accused Senate Republicans of running a rigged trial by not calling witnesses who haven’t appeared in House Democrats’ hearings.

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pictured. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) 

“Not just the issue of impeachment, but the Senate itself will also be on trial,” Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said Monday. “We owe it to our nation to be impartial and dignified in our proceedings.”

Democratic Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer called the Senate proceeding a “sham trial” and said the House should gather more information before sending the articles to the Senate. “Rather than allow for a sham trial in the Senate, we should keep gathering information & let the process ripen,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I’m stunned that McConnell would refuse to call witnesses because they might have information about wrongdoing. This is an utter abdication of the senate’s constitutional checks and balances responsibility,” Democratic Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley wrote on Twitter Tuesday. (RELATED: Impeachment Star Adam Schiff Won First Congressional Race By Campaigning Against Impeachment)

“It is incumbent on every Senator to ensure that the impeachment trial not become a farce,” asserted Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz. “That depends on whether 4 Republicans will stand up against a ridiculously quick process. Right now, you have head juror McConnell proudly promising that it will be over before it starts.”

“I call on every person in this country to demand that their U.S. senator demands an actual trial with the facts on the table. They can call the witnesses they want, but have a real trial and do not coordinate with the White House, because that’s a ridiculous idea,” Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal told The Washington Post last week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Tuesday that Democrats should be able to call their witnesses in order to have a “fair trial” — a suggestion McConnell dismissed as a “fishing expedition.”

“The House chose this road. It is their duty to investigate. It’s their duty to meet the very high bar for undoing a national election,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

“As Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi herself once said, it is the House’s obligation to, quote, ‘build an ironclad case to act.’ If they fail, they fail. It is not the Senate’s job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get to guilty,” he said. “That would hardly be impartial justice.”

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel