‘History Will Find You,’ Top Senate Democrat Warns Republicans Ahead Of Donald Trump Impeachment Trial Tuesday
With about 48 hours to go before the Senate raises the curtain on only the third presidential impeachment trial in United States history, the second-ranking senator in the Democratic Party said that Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to share his proposed rules for the trial with Democrats and that McConnell has not allowed “the most basic negotiation and exchange of information,” according to a report by The Hill.
Three-term Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (pictured above, left) also warned Republican Senators, during an appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press broadcast on Sunday morning, that there will be consequences for them if they attempt to somehow rig the impeachment trial in favor of a Donald Trump acquittal.
“I hope at the end of the day enough Republican senators will understand history will find you,” Durbin said in the MTP interview, urging his GOP colleagues to make decisions about the trial that they “can live with in terms of our Constitution and your own professional career.”
Trump’s historic impeachment trial is scheduled to open at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 21, with the first expected order of business to be what promises to be a heated debate over the Senate’s rules for conducting the trial. While Democrats say that a fair trial requires testimony from witnesses such as former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton and others, Republican Senators have uniformly opposed calling any new witnesses.
WATCH: @SenatorDurbin says "as of late last night" there had been no exchange about the “McConnell memo on rules” #MTP #IfItsSunday
Durbin: “We are a little over 48 hours away from the trial … and there hasn't been the most basic negotiation and exchange of information." pic.twitter.com/bmDnLMIKYD
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 19, 2020
The trial is set to continue each day, including Saturdays — though not Sundays — from 1 p.m. EST to about 6 p.m., according to a schedule issued by McConnell’s office and cited by CNN. But the exact schedule for the trial will not be finalized until a vote of the full Senate approves it, which is expected to take place on Tuesday.
But Durbin — who is Senate minority whip, ranking him just behind leader Chuck Schumer — said on Sunday morning that neither he nor any other Democrat has seen any of the trial rules that they are supposed to approve on Tuesday.
“I don’t know exactly what will transpire,” Durbin said, as quoted Sunday by Politico.
“We don’t know what the McConnell memo or resolution includes, as we start up.”
Durbin said that Democrats have been “very open” about their demand to call new witnesses in the Senate trial and that he expects Schumer to present a motion during the trial’s opening session in favor of allowing witnesses.
In addition to Bolton, the Democratic witness list may include Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney — and Lev Parnas, the associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who says he personally carried out much of the pressure campaign against the government of Ukraine that is at the core of the impeachment articles against Trump.
