AUSTIN –Today on CBS Face the Nation, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the Senate’s process for the impeachment trial starting next week. Excerpts of his interview are below, and video can be found here.
On the process for the Senate trial:
“We’ll start with the introduction of the resolution that will guide the schedule on Tuesday and in the Clinton impeachment that was adopted by 100 senators. Here, unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues are probably not going to participate.”
“Fifty-three senators, I believe, will embrace essentially the same rules of the road that applied to the Clinton impeachment trial, deferring the decision about additional witnesses until after both sides have had a chance to make their presentation and senators have a chance to ask questions.”
On calling additional witnesses:
“The House heard testimony from 17 witnesses, more than 100 hours of testimony. All of that will be available to the impeachment managers to present their case to the Senate. And then after they’re through, then if the senators, 51 senators, want to hear more, then we can vote to subpoena those witnesses.”
“I find it curious that Chairman Nadler of the Judiciary Committee called this a ‘rock-solid’ case. But if the House isn’t prepared to go forward with the evidence that they produced in the impeachment inquiry, maybe they ought to withdraw the Articles of Impeachment and start over again. This isn’t the Senate’s responsibility to make the case.”
“This, to me, seems to undermine or indicate that they’re getting cold feet or have a lack of confidence in what they’ve done so far.”
On Lev Parnas:
“I would be careful before crediting the veracity of somebody who is under indictment in New York, the Southern District of New York, and who’s trying to get leniency from the prosecutor and who has ties to Russian oligarchs.”