Todd Bishop
On Tuesday (January 21) at 1 pm U.S. Eastern Time, the impeachment trial process in the US Senate officially began, lasting nearly 13 hours until the early morning of the next day. White House legal adviser Pat Cipollone accused Democrats of “just trying to steal two elections”, saying that they knew this, but “dare not to speak directly.” Although everyone knows that Trump will eventually be acquitted from the Senate Republicans since September last year, these words are also a common “party argument”. If we look back at the impeachment of President Clinton before 1999, and look at Washington today, we may feel a little bit sighed.
The script for the first day of the Senate impeachment trial was expected. The Democratic Party has always insisted on calling new witnesses or evidence, while the Republican Party, which has 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate, has advocated listening to both the House impeachment manager and Trump ’s representative team. Reconsideration. Before the impeachment trial can officially begin, the Senate must pass the trial process with a simple majority-this is the first battle for Democratic and Republican senators.
Democrats win first
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell originally proposed to give the “prosecutors and defendants” only two 24-hour, two-minute sessions. Since the daily trial is scheduled to start at 1 pm, this arrangement will force senators who are not allowed to use mobile phones, drink coffee, and have no opportunity to speak until the early hours of the morning. The Democrats have questioned that they will kill the senators and let them only Wanting to settle the impeachment case as soon as possible and eventually choosing not to call witnesses, he was also accused of taking advantage of the “time advantage” of meeting daily until late at night, making it difficult for the public to “see” the impeachment trial.
On Tuesday, under pressure from several party moderate senators, McConnell finally chose to compromise, extending the time for both parties to three days, eight hours of interrogation, and canceling the original “Evidence from any House impeachment investigation.” The rule must be passed by the Senate. ” This was a small victory in the early part of the first day of the impeachment trial.
“Trapped Beast ” under the 11 amendments
However, under McConnell’s small concession, the Republican Party united to the outside world has an advantage in numbers. The Democratic Party knows that they can’t, and can only pull the cloth. It has continuously proposed amendments to McConnell’s impeachment trial resolution. Different government departments and individuals have been called to testify, from the White House, the State Council, the Ministry of Defense, to individual high-level officials and their assistants. The move is expected to be an attempt to show 69% of Americans who support the hearing of new evidence-including 86% Democrats, 69% neutrals, and 44% Republicans-to render Republicans “hiding” Trump and concealing facts sense.
Each amendment gives the prosecution and defence two hours of debate. Although the Democrats impeached their administrators, they were unable to use up two hours to fight for a long time. However, after the Republican Party rejected 53 Democratic amendments with a majority of 53 votes and passed its impeachment trial resolution, the time has come. At about 2 am on Wednesday (22nd).
In the meantime, Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, one of the administrators of the impeachment, suspected of engaging in a personal attack with Sibolon, asking the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to intervene to persuade, stating that “Those who are speaking to the entire Senate should remember where they are.”
On the first day of the Senate impeachment trial, the Republican “quickly resolved” trial resolution resolution to end the impeachment case and refuse to call witnesses and evidence in advance was passed, which is foreseeable the end of the plot. The impeachment interrogation will take place six days a week and the two parties will enter the stage of submissions. The first battle between the two parties can be said to be undecided. The only loser is probably Roberts who will return to the Supreme Court across the street at 10 am the next morning.
The Democratic and Republican party struggles were staged in the solemn hall of the Senate because of the bomb plan, which can be expected. However, things don’t have to always be like this.
Looking back at the Clinton impeachment case 21 years ago, the motion in the Senate trial at that time was passed with a consensus of 100 votes in favor of 0 votes, which shows that the political ecology of Washington has changed dramatically.
Once there was bipartisan cooperation
That year, the Republican Party, the majority in the Senate, called for a large number of witnesses to testify, while the Democratic Party opposed these as evidence that had been known to the outside world and opposed it, questioning Republican impeachment of Clinton as “Witch Hunt”, and Even if Clinton gave false testimony in a sex scandal, he was not serious enough to be removed from office-the situation is roughly the same as today’s Trump impeachment case.
However, Trent Lott, then the Senate Majority Leader, was not the same as McConnell ’s prior announcement that he would “fully cooperate” with the White House. After receiving the Clinton impeachment case, the former had been worried that the bipartisan “mud wrestling” in the House of Representatives would be staged in the Senate. They first contacted the then minority leader, Tom Daschle, and the two decided to cooperate in secret to maintain the Senate. Dignity and etiquette.
Once there was bipartisan cooperation
That year, the Republican Party, the majority in the Senate, called for a large number of witnesses to testify, while the Democratic Party opposed these as evidence that had been known to the outside world and opposed it, questioning Republican impeachment of Clinton as “Witch Hunt”, and Even if Clinton gave false testimony in a sex scandal, he was not serious enough to be removed from office-the situation is roughly the same as today’s Trump impeachment case.
However, Trent Lott, then the Senate Majority Leader, was not the same as McConnell ’s prior announcement that he would “fully cooperate” with the White House. After receiving the Clinton impeachment case, the former had been worried that the bipartisan “mud wrestling” in the House of Representatives would be staged in the Senate. They first contacted the then minority leader, Tom Daschle, and the two decided to cooperate in secret to maintain the Senate. Dignity and etiquette.
Clinton, worried that he would be betrayed by the same party, sent the White House chief of staff to scold Daschle in abusive terms when the Senate and the two parties unanimously passed the impeachment interrogation process. It is difficult to continue to attack the Republicans. The impeachment case is only for the party and has no basis.
Same politician as ever
One of the impeachers who represented the House of Representatives at the time was South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who now supports Trump. Although he used the speech “Clinton committed crimes, even if he is president, he must be responsible” once shaken the hearts of Democrats, but he finally admitted honestly that after understanding the Clinton case, the American people can still rationally respond to Clinton. There are different opinions on whether to be removed from office, and a Democratic senator who generally agrees with Clinton’s violations is given a step down against removal. Similar things have been discussed today.
Republicans had hoped to summon up to 16 witnesses to testify. However, in order to avoid the involvement of Monica Lewinsky in the Senate hall, she described her “sexual history” with Clinton, and at the same time, to prevent the Senate from entering into fierce party disputes, the two sides agreed to pass only The three witnesses were called to testify behind closed doors, and the testimony process was made available to the senators for viewing.
In the final impeachment clause, under the circumstance that 5 Republicans turned the corner and pleaded guilty to Clinton, there were 50 people supporting and opposing the removal, which was less than the threshold of two-thirds of all sitting members. The impeachment repertoire that has never been staged in the past year has come to an end.
After the voting, the leaders of the two parties, Lot and Daschler, also crossed the aisle that separated the two parties and shook hands with each other, saying that we are finally done.
After reading today’s Washington News, and looking back, it may make people wonder whether they have committed the “golden age fallacy” and beautified the past in their imagination. This description is not necessarily wrong, but the history of the Senate trial in Clinton’s impeachment is also a historical fact that cannot be argued. The American people who still have political expectations today can only feel sad that they are not in this half-imagined “golden age”, and at the same time, they feel that they can no longer see the possibility of American politics returning to this past.
