Sen. Blackburn: Democrats are only holding impeachment vote after 'flak' from critics
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House Democrats are only holding a vote on the impeachment inquiry because of the backlash they've received from Republicans for holding a "kangaroo court," Sen. Marsha Blackburn said Wednesday.
Army Colonel Alexander Vindman was in the room during the famed July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – the catalyst for the Democrats' probe – and he reportedly told a White House aide about it, who then moved the transcript of the call to a highly classified server. However, The New York Times is stating that Vindman was able to make some edits to the transcript which was eventually released to the public.
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On Monday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal vote would be held in the impeachment inquiry.
House Rules Committee chair James McGovern, D-Mass., says that "the process determining whether [the president] should be impeached will be open to public view, just as it should be...as much as this president flaunts the Constitution, we are going to protect it."
However, critics say that there are no real due process protections built-in for the president, and Democrats are gearing up to implement a guilty verdict regardless.
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Appearing on "Fox News @ Night" with host Shannon Bream, the Senate Judiciary Committee member said that what critics are pointing to is the process the House has followed for previous impeachments, telling Bream that Republicans "have no right under this resolution that is going to come forward to call witnesses, to question witnesses, to have their say into this matter."
"The president has no access to due process," Blackburn, R-Tenn., continued, "So, this is why so many are saying, look, all they're doing...they've been conducting a kangaroo court.
"They're just trying to take this vote because they've caught so much flak for doing this kangaroo court in Adam Schiff's basement and people not being able to have some visibility into what they're calling, what those witnesses are saying, being able to question those witnesses."
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The Senate, under the leadership of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, has put together a measure of its own, basically disapproving of the House's proceedings. Almost all GOP members in the Senate have signed on with Graham, except for Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
"We felt like this was important to say to the House: what you're doing isn't formal articles of impeachment," Blackburn told Bream.
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Blackburn said that, at this point, Democrats' impeachment proceedings in the House are "still an illegitimate inquiry."
"What I do know is this: Donald Trump will be...re-elected as President of the United States," she stated resolutely.