Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s coverage of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that Republican senators will be “haunted by history and by the voters” for voting against witnesses and documents.
Blumenthal said, “Not only daunting, deeply disappointing, in fact, angering. I had some hope based on my private conversations and their expression of misgivings that they would at least vote to hear the evidence, which is what the American people want. And yet now I feel they have really followed the Trump line and what we can expect next is this, blanket assertion of executive privilege which has no basis in law. One of the most dramatic moments for me last night as a former prosecutor was when Adam Schiff said I called John Bolton. I called Mick Mulvaney. Nicole, that’s the way trials begin, calling witnesses. They don’t come at the end of the trial, which is what my Republican colleagues want to do. It is just so obvious, I think, to us, and I hope to the American people, and I believe they’re going to be haunted by history and by the voters.”
He added, “It should put historic pressure on us because when the history of this era is written, the heroes will be the free press and our independent judiciary. The United States Senate in conducting a sham trial for the first time in our nation’s history without any witnesses and to say as they have done that the Senate is trying to do the House’s job, I think the American people will see through it because Donald Trump blocked the House from seeing those documents. Every single one of them. And from hearing those witnesses. So the pressure now is on us, and it should be.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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