Marco Rubio Hits Left’s ‘Stupid’ Impeachment Games: Senate Has ‘No Duty’ to Go Beyond House Witnesses

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) blasted Democrats’ “stupid” impeachment games on Thursday and asserted that the Senate has “no duty” to go beyond the impeachment witnesses who testified before House lawmakers.

“Democrats keep playing stupid games,” Rubio tweeted on Thursday.

“A Senate trial will be on the two Articles of Impeachment passed by House (if Speaker ever decides to send them over),” he continued, noting that the House voted on the articles “based on testimony of certain witnesses.”

Because of that, the “Senate has no duty to go beyond those witnesses in our trial,” Rubio concluded:

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had what McConnell described as a “cordial” conversation on the parameters of the looming impeachment trial prior to the new year, they did not settle their differences on how to proceed. Schumer has not relented on his demand for witnesses, particularly Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

“He [Schumer] wants to volunteer the Senate’s time and energy on a fishing expedition to see whether his own ideas could make Chairman Schiff’s sloppy work more persuasive than Chairman Schiff himself bothered to make it,” McConnell stated in December.

He continued:

So, madame president, this concept is dead wrong. The Senate is meant to act as judge and jury to hear a trial, not to rerun the entire fact-finding investigation because angry partisans rushed sloppily through it. The trajectory that the Democratic leader apparently wants to take us down or before he’s even heard opening arguments could set a nightmare nightmarish precedent for our institution.

However, McConnell did not shut the door on impeachment witnesses altogether.

“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell told Fox & Friends in December. “We’ve said, ‘Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.’”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) concurred, telling Maine Public Radio on Monday that she is also open to calling witnesses.

“I am open to witnesses,” she confirmed.

“I think it’s premature to decide who should be called until we see the evidence that is presented and get the answers to the questions that we senators can submit through the Chief Justice to both sides,” she added.