Decoy73

That’s true, except if it involves concealing evidence of suspected wrongdoing by the president. If there is a reasonable belief that this has occurred then Congress has the right to investigate and obtain that information. The president cannot hide behind privilege if he has done wrong. Otherwise Congress’ constitutional authority would be diminished and the president’s activities would be unchecked. That’s exactly what is happening in this case.

I agree. Set the record straight. Otherwise Fox News will take any ridiculous story of their “corruption “ and run with it all the way to Election Day.

CNN’s gives a good analysis on this. Basically Scott is sucking up to Trump so he can run for POTUS in 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/29/politics/rick-scott-donald-trump-joe-biden/index.html

Exactly. The GOP wants him to just come out and say what he knows in a public setting. That way they can use that as a reason for him not needing to testify. Plus they’ll then be able to right off whatever he says as BS. That’s why he needs to testify under oath.

executive privilege is NOT a law and isn’t in the constitution. So it doesn’t “absolutely” protect anything. When you have time, check out how the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Nixon’s use of it.

Plus the laws were broken in year 3 not 4. It''s also funny that the GOP is accusing the Dems of "rushing" the impeachment, but then they also say the trial will take too long for witnesses and we are apparently too close to the next election to remove the President. Unbelievable. Hey GOP, get your talking points straight at least. How anyone can take some of these clowns seriously is beyond my comprehension. I am a Centrist , but I still really hope that in addition to beating Trump, the Dems can overtake the Senate in 2020. The GOP needs to be put in their place, because the party has some REALLY bad representation in congress right now. They need a major reset.

Who needs the truth when we have Fox News. Just tune in daily and they’ll tell you all you need to know.

This isn’t a criminal trial. You can’t draw that parallel. Attorney/client privilege doesn’t apply when the “proverbial “ jury is the voting American public and the “proverbial “ attorney is a nation security adviser or chief of staff. The only exception would be sensitive classified material that involved national security. That doesn’t apply here. This is election interference and as a voter I have the right to know if candidate A leveraged a foreign entity to harm the reputation of candidate B.

I sincerely hope that when this trial is over, a major news publication like Newsweek, for example, lay everything out for everyone to read. Including testimony facts, Tweets and quotes from trump and congress members and how every single senator voted. We as Americans need to see their hipocracy, impartiality, coverup attempts and general denial of doing their constitutional duty. I’m guessing it won’t be a good look for the good olé GOP.

You do realize that waiving a privilege is not the same as not being able to sustain an assertion of it, don’t you? Ultimately it may get decided in court, but trump isn’t waiving anything. I also must point out that there is also a “jury” of voters who would like to know what happened, not just a majority of biased senators who won’t convict and don’t want to know the truth. Can you see now why the more evidence we learn, the better? It’s really not that difficult to understand.

If this is true, and I hope it is, I can see the GOP trying to force a “closed door “ or non-televised testimony.

I sent emails so my words wouldn’t get “paraphrased “ but they will likely go unseen anyway. One can hope though.

I suggest everyone contact your Senators and urge them to vote for witnesses. It may or may not ultimately matter, but at least you’ve done what you can do.

Deb does a poor job at hiding her denial. Seems clueless instead.

I feel confident in saying a good majority of the GOP Senators think (or at least uses it as a talking point ) that there was corruption by the Bidens. In fact it will only intensify if Biden looks to get the nomination. That’s not changing. I think it may be best for the Bidens to take the stand and clear the air so that we all can see that trumps assertion of their wrongdoing is just plain false. With that, though, everyone The House Manager’s want testifies also. So we can all see Trumps guilt It would be a reach, but There would then be a chance for a conviction. As it stands now, I see zero chance. If Trump is clearly guilty in the majority of American’s eyes and he still gets aquittted, he will lose the 2020 election and the GOP just may lose the Senate too.

Don’t be fooled. They will use this as a reason for not calling witnesses or documents.

I have no problem hearing from the Bidens as long as Bolton, Mulvaney, Blair and Pompeo also testify. Let’s get all the facts out there for all to see. Trump should testify too, but it would never happen.

If you're an OWH reader, I suggest you read this. Chuck Hagel and Bob Kerry give their takes. https://www.omaha.com/news/state_and_regional/hagel-kerrey-compare-process-of-impeaching-trump-to-that-used/article_d0ee1e7a-14f2-577a-85c9-53ae0e8ad746.html

So what you’re saying is the GOP isn’t above tit for tat.

Not too surprising. Going along with the likelihood that bringing witnesses will be voted on after opening arguments instead of upfront. After witnesses testimony, documents may be more popular with some of the GOP. But, yes it is essentially enabling McConnells plan for a cover up.

There’s will be a much greater chance for removal with appropriate witnesses testimony. In any case, I see us having a new president next year. At some point the GOP will have to lick their wounds and just focus on maintaining their majority in the senate.

My prediction: There will be witnesses called as there is just too much public pressure not to at this point. Trump will exert executive privilege to try to block and this will go to the Courts. As the Supreme Court Essentially already stated after Nixon that executive privilege cannot be used to conceal evidence, I don’t see how witnesses testimony could then be prevented by the White House.

Apparently his book will be out before the election, so we’ll still find out What Bolton knows before voting.

True, but if suddenly has better recollection for his new book deal, he could be in some deep sh!t. Not telling the whole truth can be viewed as perjury. Maybe he thinks that sticking it to Trump is better for the Nation, rather than just helping the dems. One can hope.

Kind of a glass half-empty take, don’t you think? It’s not like he will perjure himself just to avoid helping the dems. All the house managers really need Bolton to do is acknowledge there was some sort of a quid pro quo or attempt by Giuliani and his goons to get the Ukrainians to announce a Biden investigation. I would think that corroboration coming from trump’s former NSA would be pretty damaging.