[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 7, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S33-S34]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Impeachment

  Madam President, on impeachment, this morning, I return to the most 
pressing question facing my colleagues at this moment: Will the Senate 
conduct a fair impeachment trial of the President of the United States 
of America?
  The Framers suspected that any impeachment would ignite the passions 
of the public and naturally would create partisans who are either 
sympathetic or inimical to the President's interests. That is why the 
Framers gave the Senate the responsibility to try impeachment cases. 
When it came to a matter as serious as the potential removal of a 
President, they believed the Senate was the only body of government 
with enough independence to rise above partisan considerations and act 
with the necessary impartiality. Will we live up to that vision?
  Right now, the Republican leader and I have very different ideas 
about what it means to conduct a fair trial. Democrats believe a fair 
trial considers all the relevant facts and allows for witnesses and 
documents. We don't know what the evidence will say. It may exculpate 
the President. It may further incriminate him. We only want a trial 
that examines all the facts and lets the chips fall where they may.
  The Republican leader, in contrast, apparently believes that a trial 
should feature no witnesses, no relevant documents, and proceed 
according to the desires of the White House, the defendant. The 
Republican leader seems more concerned with being able to claim he went 
through the constitutional motions than actually carrying out our 
constitutional duty.
  Because the Republican leader has been completely unwilling to help 
get the facts for a Senate trial, the question will have to be decided 
by the majority of Senators in this Chamber. That means four Republican 
Senators at any point can compel the Senate to call the fact witnesses 
and subpoena the relevant documents that we know will shed additional 
light on the truth.
  I have heard several arguments from the other side as to why we 
shouldn't vote on witnesses and documents at the outset of the trial. 
The Republican leader and several Republican Senators have suggested 
that each side complete their arguments, and then we will decide on 
witnesses.
  This idea is as backward as it sounds. Trials should be informed by 
witnesses and documents; they are not an afterthought. Their reasoning 
and McConnell's reasoning has an ``Alice in Wonderland'' logic to it: 
Let's have each side make their case, he says, and then vote on whether 
the prosecutors and defense should have all the available evidence to 
make those cases.
  We know what is going on here. Our Republican colleagues, even Leader 
McConnell, knows that the American people want witnesses and documents. 
Sixty percent of Republicans do. They are afraid to say no, but they 
don't want to vote on them because that might offend the defendant in 
this trial, President Trump, so they are trying to kick the can down 
the road.
  It is a strange position for Republican colleagues to take. They are 
willing to kick the can down the road, as I said, on questions of 
witnesses and documents, but they are not willing to say when or if 
they will ever support it.
  Just yesterday, one of the four witnesses we have requested, former 
National Security Advisor Bolton, said he is ready to testify and has 
new information to share related to the case at hand. Republicans were 
dodging and twisting themselves into pretzels trying to explain why 
someone with direct knowledge of what the President did shouldn't 
testify under oath immediately.
  I believe that illustrates the fundamental weakness of the Republican 
position. None of our Republican colleagues can advance an argument 
about why this evidence shouldn't be part of a trial from the 
beginning.
  To put it another way, none of our Republicans have advanced an 
argument about why it would make sense for the Senate to wait until the 
end of the trial to obtain all the evidence.
  Make no mistake, on the question of witnesses and documents, 
Republicans may run, but they can't hide. There will be votes at the 
beginning on whether to call the four witnesses we have proposed and 
subpoena the documents we have identified. America and the eyes of 
history will be watching what my Republican colleagues do.
  Another argument I have heard from the other side is that it is not 
the Senate's job to go outside of the record established by the House 
impeachment probe. I would reply that it very much is the Senate's job. 
The Constitution gives the Senate the sole power to try impeachment 
cases, not review impeachment cases, not go over impeachment cases but 
the sole power to try them. It is not the Senate's job to put the House 
impeachment proceedings on a weeklong rerun on C-SPAN. Our job is to 
try the case, to hold a real, fair, and honest trial. That means 
examining the arguments. That means letting the prosecutors request 
witnesses and documents to make their case.
  This is not just my view. It has been the view of every Senate facing 
impeachment trial in our history. Every single impeachment trial of a 
President has featured witnesses. Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial 
had 41 witnesses. Several of my Republican colleagues here today voted 
for witnesses in the Clinton trial. Except for one solitary case, every 
impeachment trial of any official, in the history of the Senate--and 
there have been a bunch--had witnesses.
  A trial isn't a trial without evidence. A trial without all the facts 
is a farce. If the President is ultimately acquitted at the end of a 
sham trial, his acquittal will be meaningless. That is why the 
President himself should demand a full and fair trial.
  President Trump, if you have nothing to hide, if you think the case 
is as flimsy as you say, call your Chief of Staff. Tell him to release 
the documents. Call Leader McConnell and tell him what you already told 
the country; that you would ``love'' for your aides to testify in a 
Senate trial. President Trump, if you believe you have done nothing 
wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of from witnesses and documents. 
To the

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contrary, if you are afraid of witnesses and documents, most Americans 
will believe you have something to hide and that you fear you have done 
something very, very wrong.
  If my Republican colleagues believe the President has done nothing 
wrong, they should have nothing to fear from witnesses and documents. 
In fact, they should welcome them. What better way to prove to the 
American people that we are treating this matter with the gravity it 
requires. What better way to prove to their constituents that they are 
not just doing the President's bidding and not just making this a sham 
trial because of obeisance to the President of the United States.
  If every Senate Republican votes to prevent witnesses and documents 
from coming before the Senate, if every Republican Senator votes for a 
rigged trial that hides the truth, the American people will see that 
the Republican Senate is part of a large and awful coverup.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.