Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (pictured) defies Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over the imminent trial of Trump, criticizing McConnell’s abandonment of impartiality for “total coordination” with the White House.
Murkowski, who represents Alaska, said in a Tuesday interview with an Anchorage TV station about McConnell’s rejection of the Constitutional obligation of “impartial juror”:
In fairness, when I heard that I was disturbed. To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense, and so I heard what leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process.
The Senator, who has served since December 2002, rarely speaks publicly against the Republican leadership. However, she helped prevent Trump repealing ObamaCare and opposed the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over sexual assault allegations.
Murkowski indicated that she could defy McConnell’s attempt to prevent witnesses, such as White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Advisor John Bolton, in a trial.
The Trump camp ordered current and former US officials to defy subpoenas from House committees. That led to an obstruction of justice charge against Trump, alongside that of abuse of power over his demand for Ukraine’s investigations to tarnish political rivals and cover up Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US election.
Murkowski said:
If the House truly believed that they had information that was going to be important, they subpoena them, and if they ignore the subpoena as they did, at the direction of the White House, then that next step is to go to the courts.
If four Republican senators defy McConnell, alongside all Democrats, a 51-49 majority would force the summoning of witnesses. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is seeking the appearance of Mulvaney, Bolton, Mulvaney’s top aide Robert Blair, and the Office of Management and Budget’s top political appointee Michael Duffey.
Schumer’s effort has been bolstered in the past week by the revelation that Duffey commanded the Pentagon to carry out Trump’s freeze on security to assistance to Ukraine.
The command came only 90 minutes after Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which triggered a formal complaint and then the House impeachment hearings.
Murkowski said of her possible break from McConnell’s direction: “If it means that I am viewed as one who looks openly and critically at every issue in front of me rather than acting as a rubber stamp for my party or my President, I’m totally good with that.”
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