Are Republicans in the Senate preparing to betray President Donald Trump and back Democrats’ impeachment efforts?
Only seven were willing to go on the record and expressly say, “No.”
It is a dangerous time for the Trump administration. Democrats say the testimony of diplomat William Taylor on Tuesday, including the notes he provided, is proof that Trump committed an impeachable office.
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Trump himself said an impeachment trial was a “foregone conclusion” on Monday. [Read more: Trump: ‘I WILL be impeached]
Since Taylor’s testimony, many Republican leaders have been quiet. So conservative news site The Daily Caller called the offices of all 53 GOP senators between Monday and Tuesday and asked if they’d completely ruled out removing Trump from the White House.
The answers they received were surprising. The Daily Caller reported that while almost every Republican criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry, only seven went on the record and vowed they would not remove Trump from office.
Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-M.S., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Jim Inhofe, R-O.K., Roger Wicker, R-M.S., Mike Rounds, D-S.D., Rob Portman, R-O.H., and Jerry Moran, R-K.S., all explicitly said they would not vote to remove Trump from office.
The other 46 Republican senators gave a variety of answers.
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Some said they were willing to look at the evidence if a formal impeachment trial began. Some referred The Daily Caller to previous answers or declined to comment. Many simply didn’t respond to the request for a statement. Still others refused to answer the question based on hypotheticals.
For example, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-T.N., said he didn’t support the impeachment inquiry because it will divide the country further — but won’t comment on his vote.
“An election, which is just around the corner, is the right way to decide who should be president. Impeachment has never removed a president. It will only divide the country further. If the House impeaches the president, the Senate would be the jury,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-T.N., reportedly said. ” There would be many twists and turns between now and a Senate trial. Therefore, as a potential juror, I will have nothing more to say about impeachment until all the evidence is presented and all the arguments are made.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-F.L., said he would continue to listen to evidence but isn’t convinced Trump committed a crime. Scott also condemned Rep. Adam Schiff’s, D-Calif. impeachment inquiry process.
“No one showed me that there’s a violation of the law,” Scott told The Caller. “The standard is high crimes and misdemeanors. I think this is just the Democrats. They’ve always been wanting to impeach this guy, Trump, since he got elected and this is just the latest example. I’m always going to keep listening to when information comes out. But it’s crazy that they’re doing all this work over there in secret.”
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Sen. John Boozman, R-A.R., blasted the impeachment inquiry in a statement — but didn’t rule out removing Trump if the evidence presented at a hypothetical trial were damning.
“The Senate voted unanimously to request that the whistleblower complaint be turned over to the Senate Intelligence Committee,” Boozman said. “This is the responsible manner in which to investigate accusations. The Speaker is ignoring this process with her blatantly partisan tactics. Democrats have long sought to weaken the president, appease their base and further divide the country through impeachment.”
The office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-M.E., reportedly referred The Daily Caller to a previous statement by the senator.
“I am amazed that some of my colleagues have already made up their minds one way or the other before all the evidence is in and before the facts are known,” Collins had said. “I think that’s entirely inappropriate whether they’re for impeachment or against impeachment. under the constitution, the role of the senator is to act as a juror and that’s what I did in the case of the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton and should this come before us, and I think it will, that’s what I will do here.”
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Senate Leader Mitch Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., told reporters on Tuesday he would have no control over an impeachment trial.
“It wouldn’t be up to me,” McConnell said in a press conference Tuesday. “Unlike other processes in the Senate, the majority leader does not really have ball control here.”
He said there “are all kinds of potentials” for trial, depending on what articles of impeachment House Democrats send to the Senate.
McConnell said he was planning a sitdown with Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to agree on a process, but said the “balls and strikes” of an impeachment trial would be under the control of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
“I don’t see anybody in all of this who would be able to control the process,” McConnell said. “At some point, it ends. I have no idea how long this will go on.”
What do you think?
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