The few times in our history when Congress has either voted to impeach a president or considered returning articles of impeachment, the process was handled very publicly.
Hearings were not held in secret. Testimony was not taken behind closed doors. Witnesses and evidence were presented out in the open so the American people, through various media of the day, were well aware of what was happening.
The reasons for the openness should be obvious, but alas, they are not for far too many Americans.
First of all, allowing someone accused of criminal activity to face his or her accuser is a fundamental legal principle of our founding.
Secondly, secret trials were banned hundreds of years ago because they are the legal instruments of tyrants: Kings and dictators holding secret proceedings can present phony “evidence” in order to achieve convictions.
Third, the accused are permitted legal representation of their own so they can challenge the prosecution’s witnesses and alleged “evidence.”
None of these founding principles are being applied to the current “impeachment inquiry” involving President Donald Trump.
Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff of California, are holding the inquiry behind closed doors. They are bringing in ‘witnesses’ whose testimony is being sequestered — even as Schiff has been accused of leaking the contents of some witness testimony completely out of context.
Also, no one on the president’s legal team has been able to question any of the witnesses Democrats have called in to testify. So he doesn’t know what’s being said — other than what Schiff is leaking to the “mainstream media,” which is dutifully reporting what they’ve been provided, sans corroboration.
It’s the most un-American legal process one could ever have envisioned. Worse, this is supposedly involving an impeachment process — one that, theoretically, could involve the removal of a duly elected president 63 million Americans voted for.
We will rue the day we allow our country to be stolen from us
In short, nothing about this process should be held in secret. Communist countries and others who are run by dictators have secret ‘legal’ proceedings, but clearly none that would involve the leader of the country.
Democracies don’t operate that way and our unique American republic was never supposed to operate in the dark.
Granted, if the Democrat-controlled House ever does return actual articles of impeachment against President Trump, that will be conducted in the open. But knowing how secretive Democrats have been thus far, it’s a safe bet they’ll attempt to present as “evidence” the “testimony” of so-called “witnesses” who, thus far, have only appeared behind closed doors.
The NYT runs articles of “excerpts” from the released transcripts, basically doing the same thing Schitt has been doing; putting the responses to loaded questions up front and leaving buried the fact that the transcript of the actual conversation with Zelensky contains no impeachable offense and everyone testifying is offering their OPINION of what was intended.
The number of people leaving comments on those articles that actually believe there are some people with first hand knowledge that Trump committed a quid pro quo (and Biden didn’t) is astounding. Ignorance is truly the Democrat’s primary ally.
This whole Impeachment is a scam by the Dirty Democrats to take our minds off them and their plans by the Globalists for Gun Confiscation and open borders its all part of the New World Order
an executive order by the President can kill all impeachment efforts
Natural News? Seriously, folks, run through the list of Most Viewed Articles in the column on the left side. It’s like you’re at Conspiracy Theory Central. This sort of stuff will make you crazy. And it might be deliberate.
@Greg: Look up the origin of the phrase “conspiracy theory” Then know it was the CIA and FBI that set this propaganda in motion.
They screamed there is no deepstate, now its thank god for the deepstate. They portray gossips of classified information into concerned patriots.
Its twisted brother, and sad you cant see it.
Schiff is parading one after another that were not on the call but heard all about it.
@Greg: Yet, relying solely on the ignorance and stupidity of the Democrat voter is EXACTLY what Democrats are doing. Their entire impeachment strategy is to try and make it so “popular” that public pressure to impeach will override the necessity for having any actual evidence of an impeachable offense.
But, if the House votes to impeach, then none of the Democrat candidate that is a Senator must return to Congress and stay until the impeachment trial is completed. You think McConnell would expedite the proceedings? You think it might take “a long time”? You are kidding yourself if you think Pelosi intends on ever having a vote for impeachment you are delusional. It, like all the previous “investigations” is designed to do nothing but “look bad” and hurt electoral chances.
Only, it’s having the opposite effect.
@kitt: You think Greg doesn’t see it? He simply denies it and won’t face the truth.
@Deplorable Me: You can tell when he disses the source and not the article, there are plenty of sources to diss, with good cause most he follows.
@Deplorable Me, #6:
She intends to hold a vote, and those conducting the investigations intend to have built a strong enough case supported by factual evidence to force Senate republicans to take the matter of protecting our constitutional form of government seriously. Those who fail to do so will be judged by the voters in November.
You need to bear in mind that a majority of voters are not necessarily convinced that the U.S. government is secretly using flu shot to seize control of EVERY AMERICAN’S immune system, or any other such lunacy, and that running thousands of micro-targeted ads on social media won’t necessarily convince them that the impeachment investigation is a witch hunt, a coup, or a sham. People who have watched social media and the internet evolve for 30 years are a bit more sophisticated than that, and many younger voters were born skeptical.
The candidate who proclaimed to the world that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue without losing any voters just moved to Florida after getting booed at a local baseball game. (Which was most likely done to dodge taxes.)
@Greg: They booed him to dodge taxes?
The dems are gathering evidence? Talk about delusional…
@kitt: It’s in the liberal DNA. They always discount the source to justify not reading the article. It’s as if they think the liberal propaganda MSM would actually run a story that did not promote the Democrat agenda. For instance, has any Democrat source reported how Burisma lobbied the State Department to end investigations of their business and even invoked Hunter Biden’s name as a shield? That’s pretty solid proof that Trump did nothing improper trying to get Zelensky to complete the corruption investigation.
Though they have been caught LYING numerous times (not just making mistakes, but wholeheartedly promoting stories they either know is false or like the story too much to verify) do any liberals forsake the liberal outlets? Has any Democrat admonished Schiff for his blatant lies about having evidence of Trump’s collusion or what was on the Zelensky transcript? No, because the LOVE the lies; they reinforce their own prejudices.
It’s no wonder liberals are so totally ignorant of facts; they willfully ignore any fact or source of facts that might cause the discomfort of having to face the truth.
@Greg: She intends to hold a vote, and those conducting the investigations intend to have built a strong enough case supported by factual evidence to force Senate republicans to take the matter of protecting our constitutional form of government seriously.
Most notably, the State of Ukraine did not give any evidence of Mr Onyshchenko’s involvement in criminal activity, and no definitive circumstances were shown…
Onyshchenko also confirmed that former FBI agent Karen Greenway, who oversaw the Obama administration’s anti-corruption efforts in Eastern Europe, directed the coverup of the Biden scandal at the time, in concert with the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, and other Deep State American government assets ‘in-country’.
You need to bear in mind that a majority of voters are not necessarily convinced that the U.S. government is secretly using flu shot to seize control of EVERY AMERICAN’S immune system, or any other such lunacy,
The candidate who proclaimed to the world that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue without losing any voters just moved to Florida after getting booed at a local baseball game. (Which was most likely done to dodge taxes.)
@Deplorable Me, #10:
Actually, the source in question is a purveyor of genuine, steaming hot horse manure.
Don’t believe me. Examine the content being shoveled off the back of the wagon and decide for yourself. All of the bee pollen concentrate and organic wheat grass powder in the world won’t undo the damage prolonged exposure to their articles do to your thought processes.
@Greg: What’s wrong, Greg? Feeling the heat? Revelations of Burisma lobbying Obama’s State Department (Kerry) to stop the investigations of Burisma by Ukraine because the Vice President’s son is on the board and then Biden gets the prosecutor fired and PUBLICLY BRAGS ABOUT IT? Can’t find anyone anywhere with a lick of credible evidence of a crime Trump has been involved in? Popularity for the fraudulent impeachment fading?
You believe Hillary obliterated 33,000 State Department emails immediately upon hearing State wanted them turned over because they were about yoga, weddings and funerals; don’t tell me what I should believe. I prefer FACTS.
Lindsey Graham demanded release of the House impeachment hearing transcripts, claiming there’s nothing incriminating in them. House democrats are releasing the transcripts.
Graham is now refusing to read them, asserting they’re B.S.
November 6, 2019 – Lindsey Graham cries “BS,” refuses to read impeachment transcripts after demanding their release
It’s a sad thing to be a bad master’s dog.
@Greg:
He didn’t say he didn’t read them; he said it’s BS, which it obviously is.
Well, Graham should have been more accurate; Sonderland said he “presumed” it was. In other words, his opinion.
Graham is absolutely correct; the House proceedings are a sham, a farce and a travesty. Of course, there is NO Democrat outrage over Biden actually EXTORTING Ukraine to fire the prosecutor that could implicate his sonny boy in corruption. Trump didn’t commit the crime; Biden did, with the support of the Obama administration.
I know Democrats enjoy looking the other way when there is corruption, but Trump does not like squandering US aid to corrupt people. It will be interesting to find out how many Democrats are ankle-deep in Burisma corruption like Pelosi, Biden and other Democrats have been identified as being.
So, as we continue on, you and the Democrats still have NOTHING but hurt feelings and desperation.
After stating that he wouldn’t—an exchange that was captured on video—Graham subsequently stated that he had read the transcript.
Premuned? The word is nonsensical. Maybe Sonderland should have a CAT scan.
Trump is going to take many republicans down with him. But at this point they’re all volunteering to go.
@Greg: Let me help you spell checker
presumed: assume · suppose · dare say · imagine · take it · expect · believe · think
not based on facts, evidence or actual events, conjecture · speculate · postulate · posit · hypothesize · deduce · divine · infer · conclude · presuppose · take for granted
@Greg:
I don’t know what you’re talking about (snicker).
Like all the “witnesses” (they really haven’t “witnessed” anything; they’ve heard gossip and continue to gossip with Schitt), Sonderland provided what he thought Trump was accomplishing. In the end, Trump had no close relatives involved in corrupt businesses that he withheld US funds to protect… like someone else we know.