[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 28, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIAL OF PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, the impeachment trial of President 
Trump has devolved into a parade of last-minute red herrings meant to 
distract this body from the issue at hand. The near-hysteria over 
books, boredom, and beef jerky has provided a convenient vehicle for 
the House managers, who are trying their best to peddle outrage as 
evidence.
  We learned nothing new from the House managers' presentations, but 
outside the Senate Chamber, they have been doing their best to convince 
us that we are one ``bombshell'' away from, at last, having all the 
elements needed for a speedy conviction. These efforts to keep 
unfounded allegations in the limelight have not gone unnoticed by those 
who should be commanding our attention: the American people.
  Outside the beltway, Americans have grown weary of trials and talking 
points. They have heard enough, and they have had enough.
  Taking that feedback into consideration, I thought it might be 
helpful to offer an update on what we could be focusing on instead of 
this farcical partisan grudge match.
  Behind the scenes, we are limping along as best we can, but our focus 
is necessarily distracted from regular business. Before our time was 
monopolized by impeachment, the Senate was making wonderful progress on 
filling the Federal bench with well-qualified, constitutionalist 
judges.
  When we weren't interviewing those nominees, members of the Judiciary 
Committee spent time hearing testimony on privacy, competition, and the 
crisis on our southern border.
  Before impeachment, Senators serving on the Veterans' Affairs 
Committee were hard at work considering a comprehensive mental health 
bill that would strengthen veteran mental health and suicide prevention 
programs. My own IMPROVE Act is part of this effort. We were also 
working on the IT Reform Act, which would improve information 
technology projects at the VA, and the Network of Support Act, which 
would help VA officials guide veterans through the emotional upheaval 
of transitioning between Active Duty and civilian life. We were doing 
all of this in addition to our continued oversight of the VA MISSION 
Act, and check-ins on struggling clinics such as the one in 
Murfreesboro, TN, which just reduced bed space for veterans struggling 
with opiate addiction and thoughts of suicide.
  This Thursday, we have an Armed Services Committee hearing on the 
U.S.' role in AFRICOM. When I visited with our troops in Djibouti and 
Somalia at the end of last year, I saw firsthand the importance of our 
advisory support on the African continent. Drawing down resources or 
personnel in AFRICOM would harm our position as we compete with Russia 
and China--but we won't have much time to discuss this potentially 
disastrous change. Every day, work grinds to a halt at 1:00 p.m., so 
that we can sit in our seats in the Senate Chamber and focus on the 
impeachment trial.
  We could be paying attention to the full-blown health crisis plaguing 
our rural communities. Since 2010, 118 rural hospitals have shut their 
doors. Fourteen of those facilities were in my home State of Tennessee. 
Between these hospital closures, and high drug prices, there is enough 
work to be done in the health care sector alone to keep us busy through 
Christmas.
  Mister President, if Tennessee is a good test group for the rest of 
the Nation--and it usually is--I can tell you that when asked to choose 
between discussing impeachment politics and real world problems, the 
American people are much more worried about trade, transportation, and 
manufacturing, and how evolving policy initiatives will affect prices 
at the grocery store.
  I would encourage my colleagues to remember the cost of indulging 
these proceedings and to listen to their constituents back home and not 
the breathless coverage that dominates the 24 hour news cycle.

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