Political Quotes

“the question before us is incredibly serious, but it is also more than a little absurd. We are sitting as a court, exercising the sole power to try impeachments, entrusted to us by the Framers. The President of the United States has been charged with high crimes--a constitutional charge of abuse of power that includes in its text each of the elements of criminal bribery. The President's lawyers have complained all week about the absence of sworn testimony from officials with first-hand knowledge of the President's actions and intent. They claim not to know when the President froze the aid. They falsely claim there is no evidence the President withheld the aid in exchange for his political errand--announcing an investigation into his political rival. And yet whenever the President's counsels have pled ignorance or claimed a lack of evidence, they ask not that we pursue the truth; they ask instead that we look away. The Senate simply cannot look away. In the 220 years this body has served as a constitutional court of impeachment, we have never refused to look at critical evidence sitting in front of us. We have never raced to a pre-ordained verdict while deliberately avoiding the truth or evaluating plainly critical evidence. And when I say ``sitting in front of us,'' I mean that literally.…”