Lincoln Chafee: “the Senate has been held in the grip of the impeachment trial for the past six weeks. The House has been involved in the…”

“the Senate has been held in the grip of the impeachment trial for the past six weeks. The House has been involved in the impeachment process for the past six months, and the Nation has been divided over the actions and fate of the President for more than a year. We were not compelled to undertake this nearly unprecedented Constitutional remedy by partisanship, as some at the White House have suggested. We were driven to this point by Bill Clinton and Bill Clinton alone. Although I voted to acquit the President on the charges, I have no doubt that if I served in the House, I would have voted to impeach him. Chairman Hyde offered the White House every opportunity to defend the President, but the White House chose a different course. They chose to belittle the charges against the President by suggesting that everyone lies about sex. They chose to accuse their accusers by attacking the motives and integrity of the Judiciary Committee Republicans and by insinuating that Judge Starr is a sex-obsessed prosecutor run amok. They did not question the evidence on which the impeachment vote was based. With that evidence, the House Managers presented a powerful case against the President. As a result of their presentations, I am convinced that the President acted to circumvent the law.”