By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia
On Thursday, December 19, NNPA Newswire interviewed Senate Minority Lead-er Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The discussion covered a wide range of topics, focusing primarily on the impeachment of the president. The Senator also shared some insight on his conversations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Republicans have stead-fastly sided with President Donald Trump on impeachment and most other issues, perhaps out of fear that they might wind up sleeping – politically – with the fishes.
At least that’s how Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer views the otherwise hard-to-explain loyalty Re-publicans have displayed toward the president.
When asked whether he believed the GOP has a “Don Corleone-like” fear of the president, Schumer quickly answered in the affirmative.
“I have never seen any-thing like this,” Schumer told NNPA Newswire one day after the House voted to impeach the president, and moments after the Democrat met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to discuss the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate.
“What motivates these Republicans to just circle the wagons? And, whatever this president says, who is known for having a low moral character, who is known for not telling the truth, why do they rally around him? When I talk to a good number of them privately, they know how bad this guy is. But, there’s one reason they rally around him: Fear.” When asked, “What, is he the Godfather… Corleone here?” the Senator chucked and replied, “Politically speaking, he probably is.”
On Wednesday, December 18, the House voted along party lines to impeach Trump, making him just the third president in U.S. history to face impeachment. Richard Nixon resigned during the impeachment process.
Since the historic impeachment vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she would withhold sending the case to the Senate until Democrats and Republicans can reach a consensus on how a Senate trial would take place.
Based on the Constitution, if the Senate votes to convict Trump, he would be removed from office.
McConnell and other Republicans have said there’s no chance they’d convict the president and GOP leaders have threatened to lock Democrats and the public out of any Senate trial.
“Impeachment of the president is a very solemn and serious moment for our country,” Schumer stated.
“When you have a president who overreaches, the founding fathers put a few tools or checks on him, but the biggest and most important most serious and solemn check is impeachment. And, if the president goes off the rails, the Founding Fathers said the Congress has the ability to remove him,” he noted.
The House voted in favor of two articles of impeachment against Trump, obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
Schumer said the Founding Fathers listed their top fear as being a president overreaches his authority and that he would get a foreign government to interfere in the U.S. election.
“That’s what this is all about,” Schumer stated.
“So, conducting an impeachment trial in the Senate is a weighty and solemn responsibility and we Democrats in the Senate believe that the trial must be fair and it’s important to let the American people judge it to be fair,” he added.
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