Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise this evening to address the trial of Donald John Trump. The Founders gave this body the sole power to try all impeachments, and exercising that power--we all know--is a weighty, weighty responsibility. This was only the third time in the history of our country that the Senate convened to handle a Presidential impeachment and only the second in the past 150 years. I was part of a small group that worked to secure a fair, an honest, and a transparent structure for the trial, and we based it on how this Chamber handled the trial of President Clinton some 20 years ago. So there were 24 hours of arguments for each side, 16 hours of questions from Members, with the full House record admitted as evidence. That should have been more than enough to answer the questions: Do we need to hear more? Should there be additional process? Mr. President, the structure we built should have been sufficient, but the foundation upon which it rested was rotten. The House rushed through what should have been one of the most serious, consequential undertakings of the legislative branch, simply to meet an artificial, self-imposed deadline. Prior Presidential impeachments resulted from years of investigation, where subpoenas were issued and they were litigated, where there were massive amounts of documents that were produced and witnesses deposed, where resistance from the Executive was overcome through court proceedings and through accommodations.…”