Blogger Candidate Forum: The Rules

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warrent (D-MA)
nypost.com

Hello Everyone: 

It is Tuesday, Blogger and The Candidate Forum are back from the long weekend.  Before we get started on today's subject, the impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton, Blogger and The Forum want to acknowledge The New York Times' (nytimes.com; Jan. 19, 2020; date accessed Jan. 21, 2020) endorsement of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.  For the first time in its history of endorsing candidates for the presidential nomination, the editorial board has selected two candidates, two female candidates.  This is significant because the Ladies from Massachusetts and Minnesota represent the competing halves of the Democratic party: the progressive (Ms. Warren) and moderate (Ms. Klobuchar)  Their selection is a good one because they ideologically balance each other out and could offer a way to unite the fractious party.  Could they be the ticket in fall campaign?  Stay tuned.  Onward.

The United States Senate
history.com

Today the Candidate Forum wants to step into the blogosphere to talk about the Senate trial of Mr. Donald Trump.  Mr. Trump was impeached on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.  If convicted, Mr. Trump would be forced to resign from office.  This is only the third time the upper chamber of Congress has undertaken this solemn procedure. The first president impeached and tried in the Senate was the seventeenth President of the United States Andrew Johnson, who was eventually acquitted by a micro-thin one vote.  President Bill Clinton was the second president tried in the Senate for  two charges of perjury, abuse of power and obstruction of justice.  Like President Johnson, he was acquitted along party lines.  The reason The Forum decided to bring President Clinton's trial is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has decided to base the trial on a modified version of the rules used to guide the process.  Let us begin with the rules laid out for the Clinton trial.

A draft of the rules for the Senate trial of Mr. Trump
usnews.com

 Senate trials are guided by minimal constitutional rules.  The basic requirements are the standing Senate rules (govinfo.gov; date accessed Jan. 21, 2020), most of which were adopted in the wake of President Andrew Johnson's trial in 1868 "with ad hoc details worked out at the beginning of each trial" (nymag.com; Jan. 8, 2020; date accessed Jan. 21, 2020).  Certain constitutional requirements are set in stone such as the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court acts as the presiding judge and it requires two-thirds majority to convict--67 votes.  It also requires the same number of votes to change the standing rules, "which stipulate a quick beginning for the trials after articles of impeachment are received and which require a six-days-a-week trial schedule until the final vote; they structure the trial around arguments presented by House impeachment managers and the president's counsel, with senators mostly silent (though they can send written questions up to the presenters)" (Ibid).

Former Senate Leaders Tom Deschale (D-SD) and Trent Lott (R-MS)
wbur.org

In an extremely (emphasis on extremely) moment of bipartisan agreement, former Senate Leaders Trent Lott (R-MS) and Tom Daschle (D-SD) agreed to a set of rules on how to proceed with the Clinton Trial (archive.nytimes.com; Jan. 9, 1999; date accessed Jan. 21, 2020) ; that the Senate, in a once-in-a-lifetime vote, unanimously adopted.  Here is an excerpt from the 1999 rules;

Resolved, that summons be issued in the usual form provided, that the President may have until 12 noon on Monday, Jan. 11, to file his answer with the secretary of the Senate and the House have until 12 noon on Jan. 13 to file its replication with the secretary of the Senate, together with the record, which will consist of those publicly available materials that have been submitted to or produced by the House Judiciary Committee, including transcripts of public hearing or markups, and any materials printed by the House of Representatives or House Judiciary Committee, pursuant to House Resolutions 525 and 581.  Such record will be admitted into evidence, printed and made available to senators... (nymag.com; Jan. 8, 2020).

The overarching desire at the time was the upcoming 2000 election cycle.  The polls showed that the majority of Americans did not want the president removed from office and some of the senators were facing re-election.  The senate failed to come to the required two-thirds majority to convict the president on all counts.  What does current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) want to do?

Current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
cnn.com

Senate Majority Leader McConnell has not exactly been coy about skewing the trial in the direction of the president.  Yet, in an effort to deflect (blatantly obvious) charges of bias, Senator McConnell announced,

What was good enough for President Clinton in an impeachment trial should have been good enough for President Trump,... And all we are doing here is saying we are going to get started in exactly the same way that 100 senators agreed to 20 years ago... (nytimes.com; Jan. 20, 2020; date accessed Jan. 21, 2020).

Well, not exactly.

Although Senator McConnell proposes that the trial spool out in a similar manner as the 1999 trial: "...opening statements, then questions from senators, then an up-or-down vote on whether to consider calling witnesses or new evidence--his plan would speed up the proceedings" (Ibid).  This means the House managers and the president's legal team would have up to 24 hours to present their cases for or against the convictions on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.  However, in 1999 the Senate imposed no additional restrictions on how the time was use.  Senator McConnell's proposals states, "that each side must complete its work within two days, beginning as early as Wednesday" (Ibid).  This means that opening arguments could be completed by tomorrow--at the earliest--allowing senators 16 hours for questioning and subsequent debate beginning next week (Ibid), leading to a verdict by the end of the month.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
congress.gov

Needless to say, the Senate Democrats are not happy about the "speedy" trial.  Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) accused Senator McConnell of attempting to "push the proceedings into 'the wee hours of the night' to hide a damaging case against Mr. Trump" (Ibid).  Senator Schumer planned to introduce a series of amendments that would address the flaws in the proposal.  The White House, which worked closely with Senator McConnell, indicated that it was pleased with the trial guidelines.  Here are some of the changes:

The House's evidence from the its impeachment inquiry would still be printed and shared with senators, it would only be formally entered into the official record after a majority of the senator vote in the affirmative.  This vote could only take place after the Senate decided whether to call witnesses and request additional documents, as the trial moves toward its conclusion.

 Second, the McConnell proposal does not include Democratic requests for guarantee witness testimony or requests for documents.  This was also true in the Clinton trial but this time, there is a change.  "It says that after senators conclude their questioning, they will not immediately entertain motions to call individual witnesses or documents.... they will decide first whether to consider new evidence at all.... if a majority of senators agree to do so will the managers and prosecutors be allowed to propose and argue for specific witnesses or documents, each of which would then be subject to an additional vote" (Ibid).  Thus, if the majority of the Senate voted to hear witness testimony, said witness would first be be interviewed behind closed doors, then the Senate shall decide after deposition which witnesses shall testify, pursuant to the impeachment rules,...(Ibid)  Essentially like the Clinton trial, even if witnesses are called, they might never testify publicly.  Senator McConnell's intentions, according to the Democrats, are quite clear.

In a statement to the press, Senator Schumer said,

Under this resolution, Senator McConnell is saying he doesn't want to hear any of the existing evidence, and he doesn't want to hear any new evidence,... It's a cover-up (Ibid)

As of right, now Senator McConnell has the votes to get his modified version of the Clinton trial rules approved, mainly along party lines.

Could there still be a motion to dismiss the case?  No guarantees that the Senate will vote on a motion to dismiss the case.  The president's defense team could make a motion but Republican Senate leaders believe that it would not be the most prudent move.  Moderate Republicans are committed to seeing the trial through to a conclusion, risking party division on a key vote.  They argue that an acquittal would benefit the president in the long run.  Maybe.

Tomorrow, we will have an update on the day's proceedings and a fresh post.