Yesterday, Democracy Now began their coverage of the Senate impeachment trial with a discussion of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s newly devised procedural rules for the trial’s conduct.
In short, these rules limit the trial to less than one week. By comparison, Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial lasted for two months. Bill Clinton’s Senate trial took a full month.
In addition, McConnell’s rules for Donald Trump’s impeachment trial prohibits both the admission of relevant documents and the calling of witnesses to testify.
Journalists are also banned from the Senate during the “trial.”
Furthermore, the entire time permitted for each side to present their cases is restricted to three days (an expansion from the original limit of two days).
Think about this:
How many trials have you heard of where the judge ruled, before the trial began, that no documentary evidence or witness testimony will be allowed, all arguments must be finished in three days, no matter what, and all journalists are banned from the court room?
I’ll tell you — NONE, for the simple reason that what is happening now in the halls of Congress is not a trial. It is a Republican orchestrated farce, as ANY fair-minded person has to admit.
Amy Goodman’s 18 minute interview with Kristen Clarke and Rick Perlstein helps to place the current Senate travesty in historical context.
Ms. Clarke is a civil rights attorney and the Executive Director of The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Mr. Perlstein is
an American historian and journalist who has written several books about Richard Nixon, including his impeachment investigation, and Ronald Reagan.
In my view, their insights into the farcical events now unfolding in the US Senate are ominous warnings about the twilight years of American democracy.
