Donald Trump appears to be convinced that his Republican Senate led by “Moscow Mitch” aka Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will keep him in office. The House will impeach the president nearly for certain, but about what about the Senate?
Middle-of-the-ground candidate for the 2020 presidential campaign, Senator Amy Klobuchar was not as convinced. She appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper’s fill-in Dana Bash on Sunday morning.
The Minnesota senator is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The articles of impeachment will move into the Senate after they leave the House Judiciary Committee. She said that she did not see herself acquitting Trump:
‘At this point, I don’t see that. But I’m someone that wants to look at every single count. I’ve made it clear I think this is impeachable conduct.’
The House Intelligence Committee collected the evidence during its series of hearings. The House has been working in tandem with the House Judiciary Committee. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff will likely let the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) review its impeachment report before the House Judiciary hearings and the House vote.
The House Intelligence Committee has scheduled a vote to approve the report on Tuesday. The report contains the committee results from the impeachment inquiry. Even though Donald Trump blocked the committee from accessing all documents and individuals in the administration, some risked their jobs to do their patriotic duty and testify.
Up to this point, the House has taken a narrow view of Trump’s impeachable crimes. The president sent his personal attorney and fixer Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to convince the new president Volodymyr Zelensky to say that he would open an investigation into the president’s top 2020 campaign opponent, Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Both Bidens were already investigated and acquitted.
Zelensky was reluctant to get involved in U.S. politics and wisely deferred. Trump held the direly-needed and House- and Senate-approved $391 million in military aid until the Ukrainian president could wait no longer. Zelensky had finally scheduled an interview on CNN. Fortunately, the Ukrainian president was interrupted before he could go on air.
The report is expected to be transmitted to the House Judiciary Committee ahead of its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday. That report will serve as the basis for articles of impeachment that the panel will consider.
Next, Klobuchar appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press where she called Trump’s criminal activity a “global Watergate.” She was referring to President Richard Nixon’s scandal. Nixon retired before he could be impeached. Klobuchar said:
‘I see it simply as a global Watergate. Back then, you had a president in Richard Nixon who was paranoid and he delegated to some people to go break into the headquarters and get into a file cabinet to get dirt on a political opponent. That’s basically what this President has done on a global basis.’
Right before Zelensky’s interview with CNN, a whistleblower’s complaint came to the attention of the House. It originally complied with the chain of command, which led to Attorney General William Barr and the White House. When it stopped there, the whistleblower notified the House leaders.
The president of the United States did not say that he was innocent. Instead, he claimed that he had done nothing wrong, because he had the “absolute right” to involve other countries in his Biden corruption investigation. However, Trump had not mentioned corruption in his phone call to Zelensky, according to top career government employees indicated. These were the ones who actually heard the phone conversation.
The House will vote to move the investigation to the Senate. In case it passes, the Senate has already prepared itself for the Senate trial. The House serves more like the prosecutor. The Senate will be the jury, and the Senators will be the jurors. That will likely begin just as the 2020 presidential candidates go to Iowa for their first primary votes.
CNN spoke to a number of aides. They indicated that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had been talking to the many senators running in the 2020 presidential election. As far as Klobuchar is concerned, she told CNN it was her “constitutional obligation” to leave her campaigning if and when needed.
When asked if that would mean leaving the campaign temporarily, Klobuchar responded:
‘I will meet whatever obstacle is put in front of me. And this is more than an obstacle, it is my constitutional obligation.’
The Minnesota presidential candidate noted “many people out there” would be representing her should she be tied to Washington, D.C. “for a few weeks.”
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
