Marsha Blackburn calls on Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar, Bennet to recuse from impeachment trial

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that the four Democratic senators running for president should recuse themselves from being jurors in President Trump's upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate.
“Tomorrow, one hundred United States senators will be sworn in to serve in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Four of those senators must recuse themselves for their unparalleled political interest in seeing this president removed from office,” Blackburn said in a statement, speaking of Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D. Minn., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
She added the presidential candidates shouldn’t be allowed to “sit in judgment of the very president" they want to replace.
“To participate in this trial would be a failure of the oath they took to be an ‘impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws,'" she said. "Their presidential ambitions prohibit their ability to view this trial through an objective lens.”

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

Her office cited an objection that was lodged against an Ohio senator who was next in line to become president if former President Andrew Johnson was removed during his impeachment trial in 1868. Johnson was ultimately acquitted.
Last month, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he has no intention of being an “impartial juror.”
“I’m not impartial about this at all,” he told reporters in December. “This is a political process.”
McConnell also told Sean Hannity last month that he plans to be in complete coordination with the White House during the trial.
“There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can,” he said.
McConnell said this week he expects the trial to start next Tuesday.

Pelosi hands out souvenir pens, Dems slammed for gloating as House delivers Trump impeachment articles

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi drew criticism Wednesday for handing out commemorative pens -- with her name on them -- after signing a resolution to transmit two articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate for trial.
To critics, the tone of the event seemed celebratory -- a far cry from December, when Pelosi wore black and insisted on the House floor it was a “solemn” day before the Democrat-controlled body voted to impeach the president on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress allegations. Later, she even cut short two rounds of cheers from Democrats when the articles were adopted.
“Nancy Pelosi’s souvenir pens served up on silver platters to sign the sham articles of impeachment,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tweeted in response. “She was so somber as she gave them away to people like prizes.”
“You know what you hand out pens for? Accomplishments. Like, say, signing a historic trade deal with China,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Elizabeth Harrington added, referencing Trump -- who on the same day as Pelosi's impeachment signing entered a landmark trade agreement with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in the East Room of the White House.
Trump maintains the House impeachment effort -- based on accusations that he pressured Ukraine to launch an investigation into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, in exchange for U.S. military aid -- is a “hoax” and claims he is a victim of a political “witch hunt” led by Pelosi. He is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.
“So it's fitting that Democrats are handing out pens for their sole accomplishment: impeachment. Democrats have done NOTHING for the American people,”  Harrington added.
Before the signing Wednesday, aides set out two small trays containing more than two dozen black pens emblazoned with Pelosi's signature. She entered the room and sat at a table with the documents and pens before her. House prosecutors and the committee chairmen who had worked on Trump's impeachment were standing around her. Pelosi picked up each pen, signed a bit, and handed each one to a lawmaker. Sometimes, she was smiling.
“Embarrassing spectacle - Pelosi using sterling silver platters and handing out ceremonial pens to everyone in sight, made it ridiculously theatrical and so tacky and clownish. What goofballs,” Mark Simone, a conservative radio host, tweeted.
“Impeachment is so “Prayerful” that Pelosi was handing out pens in celebration. Pathetic,” Benny Johnson, chief creative officer for Turning Point USA, added.
At a Dec. 5 news conference, Pelosi had shot back at a reporter who accused her of hating Trump, saying that she, as a woman raised in a Catholic home, actually prays for the president.
“This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president’s violation of his oath of office. And as a Catholic I resent your using the word 'hate' in a sentence that addresses me. I don’t hate anyone. I was raised in a way that is full, a heart full of love, and always pray for the president. And I still pray for the president. I pray for the president all the time. So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that,” Pelosi exclaimed.
In a letter sent to Pelosi the day before the Dec. 18 impeachment vote, Trump questioned whether she was sincere about her faith and alleged she was waging a war on American democracy in her decision to launch the House-led impeachment inquiry back in September. 

The pens that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., will use to sign the resolution to transmit the two articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate for trial. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

“Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you are offending Americans of faith by continually saying “I pray for the President,” when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense,” Trump countered.

House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., second from right, reacts after getting a pen from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., after she signed the resolution to transmit the two articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate for trial on Capitol Hill. (Associated Press)

Pelosi’s signature Wednesday sent the articles to the Senate for trial, which is expected to open Thursday.
After the House vote, Pelosi withheld the articles for about four weeks from the Senate in an effort to pressure Senate Republicans to commit to seeing additional documents and testimony as part of trial proceedings. That promise never came, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday he was considering allowing both sides – Democrats and Republicans – to call additional witnesses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rudy Giuliani says dismissal of impeachment articles should be allowed under Senate trial rules

President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that dismissal of the articles of impeachment against the president should be allowed under the Senate's trial rules because the allegations don’t amount to high crimes and misdemeanors.
The articles “fall on their face” as impeachable offenses, Giuliani wrote in an op-ed for War Room: Impeachment, a website run by former White House adviser Steve Bannon.
Giuliani argued that the impeachment articles should be given the same scrutiny as charges in a criminal trial.
“Thus an impeachment, like an indictment, must be tested by a motion to dismiss if it fails to allege an impeachable offense,” he wrote.
If the articles don’t amount to an impeachable offense “it is not only an abuse of power but an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers," he added.
The 75-year-old former mayor of New York City claimed that the “abuse of power” charge -- over President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump allegedly asked for an investigation into the Bidens and withheld military aid on that condition -- was a “conversation without threat, pressure, inducement or quid pro quo.”
In November, U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland implicated top White House officials in a "potential quid pro quo" over the withheld military aid to Ukraine during testimony in the House’s impeachment inquiry, saying “everyone was in the loop.” He testified, however, that he never heard Trump tie the aid to investigating the Bidens.
Sondland's testimony also contradicted a previous statement attributed to him, in which he allegedly said the Trump-Ukraine discussion involved no quid pro quo.
The House also charged Trump with “obstruction of Congress” in the second article for blocking witnesses and documents during inquiries by House committees.
Giuliani claimed Democrats used “sparse factual allegations” for the charges, saying it arguably violated executive and attorney-client privilege, among others.
He also claimed neither article is a crime or misdemeanor.
“It would be a mockery of justice to have a trial on charges that are insufficient to result in anything other than an acquittal," he wrote.
He added that the House of Representatives has “trashed” the separation of powers by not giving Trump fair treatment during their inquiry.
“Failure to dismiss would give credence to this entirely illegitimate process,” he wrote, and would set a bad precedent for future “partisan majorities.”

NAFTA Cartoons

Senate Republicans plan vote on US-Mexico-Canada trade act

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accompanied by Sen. Joni Ernst R-Iowa, and other senators, speaks outside of the Senate chamber, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans controlling the Senate are taking advantage of delays in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial to speed up a vote on a modified North American trade pact.

Thursday’s expected vote promises sweeping bipartisan support for legislation implementing the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump and many lawmakers blames for shipping U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the vote at his weekly news conference Tuesday.

The Senate vote would follow a sweeping vote in the Democratic-controlled House last month and would send the legislation to Trump for his signature. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi played a central role in modifying the pact further to assuage allies in organized labor, such as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

The agreement is projected to have only a modest impact on the economy. But it gives lawmakers from both parties the chance to support an agreement sought by farmers, ranchers and business owners anxious to move past the months of trade tensions that have complicated spending and hiring decisions.

Trump made tearing up NAFTA a hallmark of his presidential run in 2016 as he tried to win over working-class voters in states such as Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The new pact contains provisions designed to nudge manufacturing back to the United States. For example, it requires that 40% to 45% of cars eventually be made in countries that pay autoworkers at least $16 an hour — that is, in the United States and Canada and not in Mexico.

Delay over, House to send articles of impeachment to Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is set to vote to send the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for a landmark trial on whether the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are grounds for removal.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the next steps Tuesday after meeting privately with House Democrats at the Capitol, ending her blockade a month after they voted to impeach Trump. After the midday Wednesday vote, House managers named to prosecute the case will walk the articles across the Capitol in a dramatic procession that evening.

It will be only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history, a serious moment coming amid the backdrop of a politically divided nation and an election year.

“The President and the Senators will be held accountable,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial.”

The Senate is expected to transform into an impeachment court as early as Thursday. The Constitution calls for the chief justice to preside over senators, who serve as jurors, to swear an oath to deliver “impartial justice.″

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday the chief justice would open the trial this week, but that the significant proceedings would launch next Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House last month on charges of abuse of power over pushing Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden as the president withheld aid from the country, and obstructing Congress’ ensuing probe.

McConnell met behind closed doors Tuesday with GOP senators who are under pressure from Democrats to call new witnesses and testimony. He urged them to hold together on the next steps, according to a person unauthorized to discuss the private session and granted anonymity.

Late Tuesday, House investigators announced they were turning over a “trove” of new records of phone calls, text messages and other information from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the information shows Trump’s effort ’’to coerce Ukraine into helping the President’s reelection campaign.” He said this and other new testimony must be included in the Senate trial.

McConnell, who is negotiating rules for the trial proceedings, he said all 53 GOP senators are on board with his plan to start the session and consider the issue of witnesses later.

Senate Republicans also signaled they would reject the idea of simply voting to dismiss the articles of impeachment against Trump, as the president has suggested. McConnell agreed he does not have the votes to do that.

“There is little or no sentiment in the Republican conference for a motion to dismiss,” McConnell said. ’’Our members feel we have an obligation to listen to the arguments.”

In fact, a mounting number of senators say they want to ensure the ground rules include the possibility of calling new witnesses.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is leading an effort among some Republicans, including Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for witness votes.

“My position is that there should be a vote on whether or not witnesses should be called,” Collins said.

Romney said he wants to hear from John Bolton, the former national security adviser at the White House, who others have said raised alarms about the alternative foreign policy toward Ukraine being run by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Democrats have been pushing Republicans, who have a slim Senate majority, to consider new testimony, arguing that fresh information has emerged during Pelosi’s monthlong delay in transmitting the charges.

“We want the truth,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday as the chamber opened. He said that in other presidential impeachment trials the Senate called witnesses. “Do Senate Republicans want to break the lengthy historical precedent?”

Republicans control the chamber, 53-47, and are all but certain to acquit Trump. It takes just 51 votes during the impeachment trial to approve rules or call witnesses. Just four GOP senators could form a majority with Democrats to insist on new testimony. It also would take only 51 senators to vote to dismiss the charges against Trump.

At the private GOP lunch, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky warned that if witnesses are allowed, defense witnesses could also be called. He and other Republicans want to subpoena Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of a gas company in Ukraine, Burisma, while his father was vice president.

“I look forward to forcing votes to call Hunter Biden and many more,” tweeted Paul, an ally of the president, late Monday.

McConnell is drafting an organizing resolution that will outline the steps ahead. Approving it will be among their first votes of the trial, likely next Tuesday.

He prefers to model Trump’s trial partly on the process used for then-President Bill Clinton’s trial in 1999. It, too, contained motions for dismissal or calling new witnesses.

“Fifty-one senators will decide who to call,” McConnell said.

McConnell is hesitant to call new witnesses who would prolong the trial and put vulnerable senators who are up for reelection in 2020 in a bind with tough choices. At the same time, he wants to give those same senators ample room to show voters they are listening to demands for a fair trial.

Most Republicans now appear willing to go along with McConnell’s plan to start the trial first then consider witnesses later, rather than upfront, as Democrats want.

Even if senators are able to vote to call new witnesses, it is not at all clear there would be majorities to subpoena Bolton or the others.

“I’ve been working to make sure that we will have a process that we can take a vote on whether or not we need additional information, and yes, that would include witnesses,” Murkowski told reporters.

McConnell opened the Senate on Tuesday scoffing at what he called the “bizarro world” of Pelosi’s impeachment strategy that delayed transmitting the charges for weeks.

“Do these sound like leaders who really believe we are in a constitutional crisis, one that requires the most severe remedy?” McConnell asked. He rejected Pelosi’s recent suggestions that whatever the Senate verdict, Trump will be “impeached forever.”

“It will fall to the Senate to end it with seriousness and sobriety,” he said.

Pelosi has yet to announce House managers to prosecute the case in the Senate.

Schiff is expected to lead the team. He gave the caucus a presentation on Tuesday about the transmittal of the articles and the Senate trial, according to two people who were in the room.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler is also widely expected to be an impeachment manager.

The Senate chaplain opened the day’s session with an apparent nod to what’s ahead.

“Teach our lawmakers to disagree with respect, civility and humility,” Chaplain Barry Black, a retired rear admiral of the Navy, said in prayer. Help them to remember, he prayed, that “patriots reside on both sides of the aisle.”

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Andrew Taylor and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.

Warren appears to snub Sanders' handshake after debate

Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., seemed to reject Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as he offered a handshake following Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate in Iowa.
The two candidates, who are competing for the most progressive voters in the Democratic Party, had seen their apparent nonaggression pact fray in recent days — seemingly culminating in Warren spurning Sanders' gesture on national television. She shook former Vice President Joe Biden's hand just moments before.
The rift between the senators was accelerated by a story, first reported by CNN, that Sanders had told Warren in late 2018 he did not think a woman could win a presidential election.
"Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't say it," Sanders said Tuesday evening in response to a question from the CNN moderators asking him why he had made that statement to his fellow senator. "Anybody who knows me knows that it's incomprehensible that I would think that a woman could not be president of the United States."
That answer did not appear to satisfy Warren, however, who responded, "I disagreed," when CNN moderators asked her what she thought, "when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election."
Warren went on to point out that she and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Mass., had won every single election they had ever run in, a feat none of the men onstage could claim.

'Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they have been in are the women ⁠— Amy [Klobuchar] and me.'
— Elizabeth Warren

"Can a woman beat Donald Trump?" Warren asked. "Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they have been in are the women ⁠— Amy [Klobuchar] and me.
"And the only person on this stage who has beaten an incumbent Republican any time in the past 30 years is me," she continued, referencing her 2012 victory over former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.
Tuesday's debate was the final chance voters will get to see all the top candidates on the same stage before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, which can make or break presidential primary campaigns.

Michael Flynn moves to withdraw guilty plea, citing 'bad faith' by government

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn moved Tuesday to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to the FBI in the Russia probe, citing "bad faith" by the government.
The court filing came just days after the Justice Department reversed course to recommend up to six months of prison time in his case, alleging he was not fully cooperating or accepting responsibility for his actions.
But, in Tuesday’s court filing, his legal team said he moved to withdraw his plea "because of the government's bad faith, vindictiveness and breach of the plea agreement."
"The prosecution has shown abject bad faith in pure retaliation against Mr. Flynn since he retained new counsel," Flynn’s attorneys wrote in the filing. "This can only be because with new, unconflicted counsel, Mr. Flynn refused to lie for the prosecution."
The filing continued:"Justice is not a game, and there should be no room for such gamesmanship in the Department of Justice."
In the court filing, Flynn's lawyers said the Justice Department is attempting to "rewrite history" by withdrawing its recommendation that he be sentenced to probation and by suggesting he had not been forthcoming or cooperative.
"Michael T. Flynn is innocent. Mr. Flynn has cooperated with the government in good faith for two years. He gave the prosecution his full cooperation," the attorneys added.
Flynn's case stemmed from a 2017 FBI interview, in which he was asked about his conversations with former Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Flynn ultimately pleaded guilty to making false statements regarding those conversations during his interview, as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28 in a D.C. federal court by Judge Emmet Sullivan.
The judge last December rejected claims from Flynn's lawyers that he was pressured to plead guilty to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with the Russian diplomat. His lawyers also had claimed the government withheld critical evidence that may have favored their client.
"It's been one atrocity after another," Sidney Powell, one of Flynn's lawyers, said on Fox News' "Hannity" Tuesday evening. "The recent sentencing note is full of lies."
The Justice Department wrote in its sentencing memorandum last week that Flynn's "conduct was more than just a series of lies; it was an abuse of trust."
The memorandum continued: "The government acknowledges that the defendant's history of military service, and his prior assistance to the government, though not substantial, may distinguish him from these other defendants. The government asks the court to consider all of these factors, and to impose an appropriate sentence."
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.