Here are the facts:
- The House questioned 18 witnesses in the "bunker" and released 17 transcripts.
- The House questioned 13 witnesses on national TV.
- 29,000 pages of documents have been delivered to the Senate.
During the impeachment inquiry the House Intelligence Committee did not offer the President due process or anything close to due process: He was NOT allowed representation. He was NOT allowed to call witnesses. He was NOT allowed to cross examine witness and he was NOT allowed to confront his accuser.
Serial killers are allowed due process but not the President? I acknowledge the President is not being charged with a crime and the worst thing that could happen is being removed from office but still a causal observer would think the President of the United States would be offered due process.
So what now? I think the Senate should vote to toss out the charges because the President's basic civil rights were violated.
That's not going to happen so I hope the Senate realizes it's not their job to make the House's case. If they want to hear from Lieutenant Colonel Vindman or Ambassadors Sondland go for it... I like seeing Senators sitting quietly for hours and hours.
Maybe they should follow past impeachments and have witnesses that already testified? I would like to hear from the 18th witness or at least redact and make public the missing transcript. Bottom line, the President is going to be acquitted by the State of the Union.
That said, who knows what dirty tricks the Dems, Deep State or Never Trumpers will hack up at the last minute.
Update: The vote against having MORE witnesses went down 51/49 with Susan Collins and Mitt Romney breaking ranks. Susan's vote I can understand as she is in a state that could go to the Dems later this year. Mitt Romney on the other hand won his seat with 62.6% of the vote and isn't up for election in over four years. My guess... Romey, like John McCain, just hates Trump.
Update: Monday there will be four hours of closing arguments and then two days of floor speeches followed with a vote on both articles of impeachment likely late Wednesday. The verdict is not in question and of course the Dems are saying it will be illegitimate because there were no witnesses or documents. A false narrative ignoring the 18 witnesses who testified in the "bunker" and the 29,000 pages of documents submitted to the Senate.
The bottom line... The President will be giving the State of the Union Address under the cloud of impeachment which may explain why Speaker Pelosi delayed delivering the articles of impeachment.
Last word... The vote is in. With the exception of Mitt Romney every republican and a few Democrats agree the impeachment of President Trump was a political exercise and not based upon facts. According to Nancy Pelosi the impeachment started years ago only recently taking final form in the bowels of the House's secure bunker that somehow leaked cherry picked tidbits that made the President look bad.
The phrase history will judge is contrite but in this case I believe it's appropriate. History will indeed look back at this impeachment, lacking any criminal offense, as exactly what our founders tried to prevent when they do carefully drafted Article 1, section 2 of our constitution.
