[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S65]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Impeachment

  Mr. President, now, on impeachment, yesterday, Leader McConnell 
announced that he has the votes to pass a partisan resolution to set 
the rules for the impeachment trial of President Trump. It was another 
unfortunate confirmation that Leader McConnell has no intention of 
working with the minority to establish rules of a fair and honest trial 
that examines the evidence, hears from witnesses, and receives the 
relevant documents.
  I have asked Leader McConnell repeatedly to sit down and negotiate a 
plan where we would have witnesses and documents, and he has refused. 
Instead, Leader McConnell, by his own admission, took his cues from the 
White House when it came to setting the parameters of a trial. Rather 
than engaging in any serious negotiation with the Senate minority, he 
only spent time trying to convince his caucus that we should punt the 
questions of witnesses and documents to a later date.
  I have explained why this proposal makes very little sense from the 
perspective of having a fair trial. The evidence should inform 
arguments in a trial. Evidence should not be an afterthought. Why would 
it make sense for both sides to present their entire case and then 
decide whether the Senate should request the evidence that we already 
know is out there?
  It is extremely telling that Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans 
are not willing to take a forthright position on whether we should call 
witnesses and request documents. They can only say that the issue 
should be addressed later. Their only refuge--not much of one--is to 
kick the can down the road. No one--no one--has advanced an argument as 
to why the four eyewitnesses we have proposed should not testify. No 
one has advanced an argument as to why the three specific sets of 
documents related to the charges against the President should not be 
provided. Republicans can only get behind kicking the can down the road 
because they know we have the full weight of the argument on our side. 
There is virtually no argument why we shouldn't have witnesses and why 
we shouldn't have documents.
  I want to make one thing very clear: There will be votes--repeated 
votes--on the question of witnesses and documents at the trial. The 
initial votes will not be the last votes on the matter. Republicans can 
delay it, but they cannot avoid it. And when those votes come up, 
Senate Republicans--not Leader McConnell, who has already cast his lot 
completely with the defendant, the President--will have two crucial 
things to worry about.
  First, if the Senate runs a sham trial without witnesses, without 
documents, and without all of facts, then the President's acquittal at 
the end of the trial will be meaningless. A trial without all the facts 
is a farce. The verdicts of kangaroo courts are empty.
  Leader McConnell is fond of claiming that the House ran the ``most 
rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern 
history.'' I know that is his talking point, but, in truth, Leader 
McConnell is plotting to run the most rushed, least thorough, and most 
unfair impeachment trial in modern history. If the Senate rushes 
through the President's impeachment, if we actually fail to try the 
case, as the Constitution demands, then the true acquittal the 
President craves will be unobtainable.
  The American people will see right through a partisan trial and 
understand that a rush to judgment renders that moot. They will 
understand that, when you don't want witnesses and documents, you are 
afraid of the truth and that you are covering something up, and that 
the likelihood is strong that you did something very wrong. That is 
common sense. That is what all the polling data shows most Americans 
believe.
  Second, when the Senate has votes on witnesses and documents, my 
Republican colleagues will have to answer to not just the President. 
The American people do not want a coverup. Whatever their view of the 
President, the American people want the Senate to have a fair trial. 
All the data shows that, with two more polls in the last few days. 
Every Senator will be under massive public pressure to support a fair 
trial that examines all the facts.
  The American people understand the gravity of the charges against the 
President. The House has impeached the President for using the powers 
of his public office to benefit himself. The President was impeached 
because the House believes he tried to shake down a foreign leader into 
investigating his political opponent, pressuring a foreign power to 
interfere in our elections. He was impeached because he undertook an 
unprecedented campaign of obstruction to prevent Congress from 
investigating his wrongdoing.
  The Articles of Impeachment suggest the President committed a grave 
injury to our democracy. The conduct they describe is exactly what the 
Founders most feared when they forged the impeachment powers of 
Congress.
  If the Senate fails to hold a fair hearing of those charges, if one 
party--the President's party--decides to rush through a trial without 
hearing all the facts, witnesses, and documents, it will not just be 
the verdict of history that falls heavy on their shoulders. The 
American people, in the here and now, will pass a harsh judgment on 
Senators who participate in a coverup for the President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.