Elizabeth Warren with the right answer
She has the right answers on a lot of things in my opinion but this was just masterful. Jake Tapper tried to trap her on impeachment and she not only explained why she has said he’s guilty but managed to make the Democratic Senate’s case for a real trial at the same time:
TAPPER: Let’s turn to impeachment, because you do want to talk about it apparently. You’ve said you have heard enough evidence to vote to convict president Trump in the senate trial. Take a listen to number two Democrat, your whip, Senator Dick Durbin, on this show, just a couple of weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Is it a mistake for the senators on both sides of the aisle frankly, to say how they’re going to vote before the trial starts?
DURBIN: I really think it is. I think they’ve gone too far. You know, how can they hold up their hands up and say “I swear impartial justice”? You can’t do that. They shouldn’t have done that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That’s the Democratic leader of the senate saying that you and others should not have said that you would vote to convict him. Is he wrong?
WARREN: Look, I have enormous respect for Senator Durbin, but understand this. What I said is enough evidence has been presented and so far Donald Trump has offered absolutely no defense. It is not like they’ve come forward and said, oh, wait, we want to present some other evidence and the other evidence is going to show something different. They’ve done nothing.
In fact, they have done worse than nothing. What they’ve said is that you can’t hear from the witnesses who have first-hand information and you can’t get the documents that you need to see to have more evidence about what’s happening.
They are defying a court order. Remember about separation of powers? They were ordered to release documents and are refusing to do it.
So, the way I look at this is I see the evidence that is in front of us and I see the fact that they’re not putting forward any defense, and I see that they are trying to block any access to additional first-hand information.
Boy, that tells me that this is someone who has violated the law, and this is someone who needs to be held accountable.
No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States, and that is what impeachment is about.
At this point you can only say, “If they want to solely rely on the evidence presented by the impeachment articles then that’s all you have to go by and he’s clearly guilty. Put on a defense and we’ll take that into consideration.”
That’s where we are and most of the public agrees. Even a majority of Republicans think there should be witnesses.
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