By the time you read this, President Donald Trump's impeachment trial will be nearing its conclusion. Because of the importance of this vote, and the historic nature of only the third presidential impeachment in our history, I want to tell you directly why I will vote to remove the president from office, and where I think we go from here.
I was reluctant to go down the path of impeachment. While I strongly disagree with the president on many issues, impeachment should be a last resort. But then I read the whistleblower report, which alleged nothing less than the president's corrupt abuse of power that had the potential to undermine the 2020 election. For me, this left us no choice but to begin an impeachment inquiry.
When the U.S. House sent the two articles of impeachment to the Senate, it became my job to "do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the law." I take that oath as seriously as anything I have ever done.
This impeachment trial has been about whether the president's corrupt abuse of power — power he used for his own personal, political benefit, while betraying the public trust — is a high crime and misdemeanor as defined by our founders in the Constitution. I believe it is. I also believe that to condone such corruption undermines the core value of our nation — that no one is above the law, including and most especially our president.
Over hundreds of hours of presentations, and thousands of pages of documents, the facts of the case were never really refuted. The president withheld security assistance and a prestigious White House meeting in an effort to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations of a political rival and a baseless conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.
Then when the House sought to investigate, the Trump administration blocked subpoenas for documents and witnesses. No president has ever categorically rejected Congress' investigative and oversight powers in this way. Not Richard Nixon. Not Bill Clinton. This obstruction fractures the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. If we say the president can decide whether he cooperates with a congressional investigation, we are saying he is above the law.
While evidence of the president's wrongdoing is substantial, I advocated for a trial that would be fair for both sides, which means hearing from witnesses with direct knowledge of the president's actions. I am greatly disappointed that almost all my Republican colleagues in the Senate abandoned the historical bipartisan precedent of hearing from witnesses in every impeachment trial. The Senate abandoned its responsibilities when it blocked efforts to get the complete truth.
As a result, there will be a permanent cloud over these proceedings. The president may be acquitted, but without a fair trial he cannot claim to be exonerated.
