Excitable Chuck Schumer Thinks He Can Dictate How Senate Impeachment Goes

After Democrats dominated the House hearings, laying out the rules without GOP input, limiting who the GOP could call, refusing to include exculpatory evidence in their final report, and, essentially, as Rep Doug Collins wrote, “the majority decided to pursue impeachment first and build a case second,” Democrats in the Senate think they have power

Schumer, Pushing McConnell to Negotiate, Lays Out Plan for Impeachment Trial

As the House prepared to make President Trump only the third president in American history to be impeached, the Senate’s top Democrat on Sunday laid out a detailed proposal for a Senate trial “in which all of the facts can be considered fully and fairly” — including subpoenas for documents the White House has withheld and witnesses it has prevented from testifying.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, presented the proposal in a letter to his Republican counterpart, Senator Mitch McConnell, in an opening move to force Republicans to negotiate over the shape and scope of the proceedings. Mr. McConnell had said last week that he was “taking my cues” from the White House, prompting Democrats to accuse him of abandoning his duty to render “impartial justice” in the trial.

In the letter, Mr. Schumer proposed a trial beginning Jan. 7 that would give each side a fixed amount of time to present its case, and called for four top White House officials who have not previously testified — including Mick Mulvaney, Mr. Trump’s acting chief of staff, and John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser — to appear as witnesses.

Mr. Schumer also called for the Senate to subpoena documents that could shed light on the events at the heart of the charges against Mr. Trump: his campaign to enlist Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. And he set forth a specific timetable for each side to present its case, modeled on the one used when President Bill Clinton was tried in 1999. Mr. Clinton’s trial lasted about five weeks.

Except, the articles of impeachment barely touch on Ukraine, and, if Schumer wants to open this can of dog food, then the GOP should call Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, a few of the Ukranians involved, and, oh, heck, let’s call Barack Obama, because Joe Biden specifically stated that Obama would back him on withholding $1 billion in aid if they didn’t fire the guy investigating Burisma.

“Senate Democrats believe strongly, and I trust Senate Republicans agree, that this trial must be one that is fair, that considers all of the relevant facts, and that exercises the Senate’s ‘sole power of impeachment’ under the Constitution with integrity and dignity,” Mr. Schumer wrote.

Schumer should talk to his House comrades, who set the tone. It’s been a complete partisan process there, so, don’t expect anything different in the Senate, considering this is all about Trump Derangement Syndrome from the Left

(Yahoo News) Lindsey Graham will not try to “pretend to be a fair juror” should Donald Trump face an impeachment trial in the US Senate.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday, the South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally said he was “trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here. What I see coming, happening today, is just a partisan nonsense.”

“This thing will come to the Senate,” he said on Saturday, “and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly.”

Schumer and the Dems can caterwaul all they want: they should have told their House comrades to run a fair and impartial hearing to start.