WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial got underway on Tuesday, but the question as to whether there will be witness testimony pertaining to the January 6th Capitol Hill riot remains unresolved. At the moment, the proposed trial rules provide that a decision on witnesses would be made only after the question and answer period is concluded.
Both Cory Booker and Bob Menendez support calling witnesses. Some Republicans have countered that witnesses would be useless since the event itself was witnessed firsthand by most of U.S. Senate, and a leading GOP senator is on record saying that his pro-impeachment colleagues might be making a tactical blunder by insisting upon witness testimony.
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Last week, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that if Democrats “open that can of worms, we’ll want the FBI to come in and tell us about how people pre-planned this attack and what happened with the security footprint at the Capitol. You open up Pandora’s Box if you call one witness.”
Hannity had also suggested during his back-and-forth with Graham that both Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris should be subpoened, too, if witnesses are called. The defense’s presumed purpose would be to illustrate how difficult it is to differentiate between over-heated political rhetoric or actions cross the line and become incitement or aiding and abetting of lawlessness.
For example, Schumer drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts a year ago for saying the following on the Supreme Court’s steps: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Harris backed a bail fund which sprung Minnesota rioters from jail; one twice-freed rioter was later charged again.
Graham agreed concerning the potential value of exploring Harris’s actions with the Vice President under oath, asking rhetorically “how’s that not inciting future violence?”
Could Cory Booker also be called to testify pursuant to this line of thinking? The self-styled Spartacus’s increasingly unhinged rhetoric reached a new level of recklessness during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings; he later expressed regret for accusing ALL Kavanaugh supporters of being “complicit in evil.”
Watch:
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