Texan accuses Democrats of power grab and insists it has backfired
John Cornyn calls impeachment case ‘half-baked,’ says it has bolstered Trump’s
reelection prospects—and his own
Texan accuses Democrats of power grab and insists it has backfired
By Todd J. Gillman <[link removed]> and Tom
Benning <[link removed]>
Published in the Dallas Morning News
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February 5, 2020
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WASHINGTON — Hours before the Senate would vote on two articles of
impeachment, Texas Sen. John Cornyn accused Democrats of trampling on the
Constitution in service of a “crusade” to oust President Donald Trump.
In a floor speech Wednesday, he characterized the allegations as well short of
the standards required to remove a president, particularly without bipartisan
support and as Trump seeks reelection.
Unlike a handful of GOP colleagues, Cornyn expressed no dismay over the
actions at the heart of the impeachment: a pressure campaign aimed at prodding
Ukraine to announce a corruption probe targeting a political rival, Joe Biden,
using U.S. military aid as leverage.
“Certainly the House managers did not meet the high burden required to remove
the president from office, effectively nullifying the will of tens of millions
of Americans, just month before the next election,” Cornyn said, who previously
has called the effort “insane.”
“I hope our Democratic colleagues will finally accept the results of this
trial, just as they have not accepted the results of the 2016 election,” he
said.
The outcome of the trial is not in doubt. A two-thirds majority of senators is
required to convict. Republicans control 53 of 100 seats and none have signaled
an intention to vote for conviction. Still, a few have chastised Trump for his
behavior. Others, among them Texas’ junior senator, Ted Cruz, have rallied
behind Trump, conceding no hint of wrongdoing and vehemently accusing Democrats
of pursuing a case that is factually baseless and constitutionally inadequate.
“Impeachment is an extraordinary remedy,” Cruz said during his 10-minute slot
on Tuesday ahead of the vote. "It’s not designed for when you have political
differences or policy differences. It’s designed for when the president crosses
the constitutional threshold.”
Cornyn is seeking a fourth six-year term in the fall, and Democrats hoping to
unseat him have aggressively sought to turn his stance on impeachment to their
advantage.
“Senator Cornyn has proven that he is uninterested in evidence and testimony
and instead will continue to put political loyalty ahead of doing his job,” one
of those Democratic contenders, M.J. Hegar, said earlier in the trial.
When Senate Republicans shot down demands from Democrats to call witnesses at
the trial, Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa said they
“shamelessly... chose to support McConnell’s cover-up over upholding their
constitutional oath.”
Cornyn spokesman Drew Brandewie noted that during the Senate trial, lawyers
played snippets of testimony from 13 witnesses at the House impeachment
hearings, and the trial record included 28,000 pages of documents. Democrats
sought testimony from witnesses Trump ordered not to cooperate with the House,
and to subpoena documents the administration refused to turn over to the House.
But even as Democrats insist that acquittal will give Trump and future
presidents license to abuse their power,Cornyn argued that conviction in a
“politically motivated impeachment sets a dangerous precedent.... If
successful, this would give a green light to future congresses to weaponize
impeachment to defeat a political opponent, for any action, even a failure to
kowtow to Congress’s wishes.”
He previewed his floor remarks on conservative talk radio, telling host Hugh
Hewitt earlier Wednesday that the case presented at trial “was simply
half-baked. ...In the private sector, if lawyers had presented a case the way
the impeachment managers did, they’d be sued for legal malpractice. It was just
a disaster from the start, and so the president will be justly acquitted.”
On the Senate floor, Cornyn asserted that “they’ve failed to bring forward any
unassailable evidence” of a high crime or misdemeanor of the sort required for
impeachment.
Like nearly all GOP senators, Cornyn voted against calling any witnesses or
demanding any documents from the White House, State Department or Pentagon that
prosecutors sought, including testimony from Trump’s chief of staff, Mick
Mulvaney, and former national security advisor, John Bolton.
Trump blocked testimony from those and other key players and issued a blanket
refusal to turn over administration documents.
Democrats accused him of stonewalling. And they accused his allies in the
Senate of enabling a cover-up, willfully blinding themselves to evidence that
would have been even more persuasive than what the House did manage to collect
despite the obstacles.
But impeachment, Cornyn said, should be used only “when absolutely necessary….
We should be extraordinarily vigilant to make sure that the impeachment power
does not become a regular feature of our differences, and in the process,
cheapen the vote of the American people.”
He ascribed partisan motives to Democrats, accusing them not only of trying to
remove Trump — whose successor would be his hand-picked vice president, Mike
Pence — but of flipping control of the Senate so that Democrat Chuck Schumer
would replace Republican Mitch McConnell as majority leader.
Trump is the third president to be formally impeached. Richard Nixon resigned
to avert impeachment over Watergate. No president has been removed from office.
“I’ve done my best to listen intently to both sides… and I’m confident in
saying that President Trump should be acquitted, and not removed from office,”
Cornyn said.
As for the implications on his reelection prospects, Cornyn told The Dallas
Morning News off the Senate floor that “This isn’t just about this president.
This is about the presidency itself and whether we trust the American people to
choose their own leaders.
“If my Democratic friends who are running for the Senate have different views,
I’d love to engage with them on the campaign trail on that. I think the Texas
voters would be with me and not with this idea to remove a president from the
ballot just months before the next presidential election.”
In fact, he said, the assault on Trump’s presidency has backfired.
“Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are doing everything they can to see that
he’s reelected,” he asserted.
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