Congressional reporters, who are used to relatively free rein at the Capitol to grab lawmakers for hallway interviews, are taking to social media to complain about the press restrictions enforced during Trump’s impeachment trial.
Schumer is talking to reporters but Capitol police wouldn’t let me cross the senate floor to join the gaggle. There is no video so I’m going to have to rely on his team to get it. Just another example! pic.twitter.com/QY3El1pTlo
Speaking earlier today on the Senate floor, minority leader Chuck Schumer assured reporters that he would fight to protect their constitutional right to cover the proceedings.
“I want to assure everyone in the press that I will vociferously oppose any attempt to begin the trial unless the reporters trying to enter the gallery are seated,” Schumer said. “Some may not want what happens here to be public. We do.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has called for a 15-minute recess before Trump’s legal team and the House impeachment managers are allowed to debate Chuck Schumer’s amendement.
Schumer’s amendment to the impeachment trial resolution calls for the White House to be subpoenaed for documents related to the charges against Trump, so the president’s lawyers will likely be forcefully pushing back against it.
Schumer introduces amendment to subpoena White House documents
As promised, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has introduced an amendment to the impeachment trial resolution to suboena the White House for documents related to the allegations against Trump.
Schumer would need a majority of the Republican-controlled chamber to support the measure in order to get it passed, but the potential Republican swing votes have largely said they are not ready at this point in the trial to back the proposal.
While slamming Trump’s impeachment on the Senate floor, White House counsel Pat Cipollone mocked the Democratic senators who are running for president.
“Some of you are upset because you should be in Iowa right now,” Cipollone said, referring to the imminent Iowa caucuses.
But the Democratic senators who are seeking their party’s presidential nomination -- Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bennet -- have emphasized the importance of fulfilling their constitutional duty by participating in the impeachment trial.
“Some things are more important than politics,” Warren said during last week’s debate.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone falsely claimed that Republican House members who sit on the committees that led the impeachment inquiry were not allowed to attend closed-door hearings during the investigation.
Cipollone railing against Schiff for running impeachment investigation from the basement of the Capitol.
"Not even Mr. Schiff's Republican colleagues were allowed in the SCIF," he said.
(That's not true: roughly 1-in-4 House R's sit on cmtes that conducted the depositions.)
A staffer for Republican senator Ted Cruz posted this tweet to apparently poke fun at chamber rules barring members from carrying their cell phones into the impeachment trial.
But several Capitol Hill reporters going in and out of the trial room said the Texas Republican did not appear to be actually violating the rule barring senators from carrying electronics during the proceedings.
The president advised his Twitter followers to read the “transcripts,” inaccurately referring to the memos the White House released about Trump’s calls with the Ukrainian president.
However, the White House memo from Trump’s July phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy actually showed the US president asking his Ukrainian counterpart for a “favor” before going on to discuss political investigations.
Presenting the House impeachment managers’ argument against Mitch McConnell’s impeachment trial resolution, Adam Schiff played clips of Trump that Democrats say underscore the president’s abuse of power.
One of Schiff’s clips included Trump falsely saying in July, “Then, I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president.”
Article II of the constitution outlines the president’s “executive power,” but it does not grant the commander-in-chief unchecked power.
Schiff is playing video clips of Trump on the Senate floor.
These are about him fighting all the subpoenas re. the House impeachment inquiry. pic.twitter.com/1H2u0fGnp7
The office of senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican whose approach to Trump’s impeachment trial is being closely watched because of her tough reelection race this year, said she pushed for changes to the resolution outlining trial procedures.
Senator Collins spox: "She and others raised concerns about the 24 hrs of opening statements in 2 days and the admission of the House transcript is the record. Her position has been that the trial should follow the Clinton model as much as possible..."