Sen. Bob Menendez confirmed that Republicans are getting up and leaving the Senate chamber for extended periods of time instead of listening to impeachment evidence.
Menendez told CNN when he was asked about Senators getting up and leaving, “We do have a series of our colleagues, particularly on the other side of the aisle who seem to get up quite a bit and often leave the chamber for extended periods of time. Listen, it’s not a great comfort to sit there for endless hours, but at the end of the day I want to hear all of the testimony, and I can’t do that if I’m not in the chamber….There are a fair number of people on the other side who seem to get up and I guess they’ve had enough, and they just don’t want to listen to the rest of the testimony.”
Video:
“I think that the House managers have made a powerful, constructive, methodical case,†says Sen. Bob Menendez, discussing the Senate impeachment trial https://t.co/CVvn7mcIpN pic.twitter.com/Po9PSvfIql
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— CNN (@CNN) January 23, 2020
The last part of what Sen. Menendez said is very important. A Senator can’t hear all of the evidence if they aren’t in the chamber. Republicans don’t want to hear the evidence against Trump. If they hear evidence, it becomes more difficult to push their lies and conspiracy theories.
The comments of Sen. Menendez match up perfectly with reporting from journalists who are in the chamber. Mitch McConnell has banned C-SPAN from showing any of the other activity in the chamber, so the cameras can’t capture it, but eyewitnesses are confirming that Republicans are breaking the Senate rules and refusing to hear the evidence against Donald Trump.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
