{"id":8382,"date":"2020-02-01T10:06:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T15:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/?p=8382"},"modified":"2020-02-01T11:47:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T16:47:47","slug":"gop-senators-vote-to-conceal-evidence-and-a-republic-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2020\/02\/gop-senators-vote-to-conceal-evidence-and-a-republic-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Senators Vote to Conceal Evidence and a Republic Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Hey, Senate Republicans \u2013 What are you afraid of?<\/p>\n<p>I think I know.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been following the Trump impeachment saga, you know by now that the GOP has laid aside any feigned allegiance to the Constitution or the rule of law, in order to protect their king, Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>This week saw Senate Republicans \u2013 with the exception of Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Maine Senator Susan Collins \u2013 vote to suppress witness testimony or the introduction of evidentiary documents into the impeachment trial of President Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Is it then, a trial, or a mockery of our system?<\/p>\n<p>Just as he walked away from the Russia investigation, due to a complicit Attorney General Bill Barr, Trump will walk away from this latest act of corruption, as well. The sniveling cowards of the GOP-majority Senate will acquit. There was never a question about that.<\/p>\n<p>The question is: <em>WHY??<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I suspect the fear of Trump\u2019s rabid, mindless cult. They lack anything resembling reason, rational thought, patriotism, or morality.<\/p>\n<p>They see the corruptness of Trump, his abusiveness and lies, and as it is with any dangerous cult, if the central figure of their adoration says it\u2019s ok, then it is the gospel.<\/p>\n<p>The danger is that a desperately corrupt Trump will only be emboldened by this move of cowardice from Senate Republicans, as will the puppet masters pulling Trump\u2019s strings.<\/p>\n<p>We have leadership in Washington that are more afraid of getting voted out of office than they are loyal to our nation\u2019s foundational principles.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, that goes for both sides of the political aisle. They\u2019re all scoundrels.<\/p>\n<p>But for now, we should all be curious as to how this can even be called a trial, when there are witnesses willing to come forward, but Republicans don\u2019t want to hear from them.<\/p>\n<p>Take for instance, Lev Parnas. He has some stories to tell, along with audio and images, that could add a bit of weight to the decision making process.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, as Republicans took their blood oath to Trump over the Constitution, Parnas\u2019 attorney reached out to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an attempt to offer his client\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/480933-lawyer-tells-mcconnell-that-parnas-has-records-directly-relevant-to\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\">testimony.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the letter, Joseph Bondy tells McConnell that Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump\u2019s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, would be able to tell the Senate information that is \u201cdirectly relevant to the President\u2019s impeachment inquiry,\u201d specifically regarding Parnas\u2019s relationship with Trump and Giuliani as well as his \u201cactions in Ukraine on behalf of the President, as directed by Mr. Giuliani.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is an uncomfortable connection that the GOP does not want to be made publicly, nor do they want the responsibility of hearing something that might prove their leader every bit as dirty as multiple reports have made him out to be.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The contents are similar to what Parnas said in his sit-down interview with MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow two weeks ago. Both the letter and interview indicate that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Energy Secretary Rick Perry and several other officials within the Trump administration were aware of the pressure campaign in Ukraine that is at the center of Trump\u2019s impeachment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>They knew.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For those who have read my work for any amount of time, you know I\u2019ve been an avid supporter of Rick Perry in the past, supporting him in both his failed presidential bids. What a disappointment it is to see him succumb to the cancer of Trumpism he once denounced with such fervency.<\/p>\n<p>Bondy tweeted out the letter he sent to McConnell on Friday, detailing what his client could offer, by way of testimony and evidence.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Below is the letter Stephanie Schuman <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeafLegal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">@LeafLegal<\/a> and I sent to Senator McConnell earlier today, (202) 224-2541, summarizing the testimony Lev Parnas would be able to provide, were he called as a witness. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LetLevSpeak?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">#LetLevSpeak<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AmericansDemandWitnesses?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">#AmericansDemandWitnesses<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CallTheWitnesses?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">#CallTheWitnesses<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LetBoltonTestify?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">#LetBoltonTestify<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WPn7ppz2rG\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/WPn7ppz2rG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/josephabondy\/status\/1223331368618418176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">January 31, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sadly, it was all for naught. Republicans had made up their minds before proceedings ever began.<\/p>\n<p>Trump defense lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, declared openly that as long as Trump feels it benefits him, anything goes. There is no law. There is no order. There is no God. There is only Trump.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re living in a desperately perilous time in our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>We have a lawless, unrestrained would-be dictator at the helm of power, on one side, and on the other side are crazed socialists and anarchists, looking to topple the republic, in favor of a system of government that would put us all in chains.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans could have done better. They could have been heroes, but they chose to be cowards. Their narrow Friday vote of 51-49 was a vote to conceal evidence. They voted to uphold Trump\u2019s corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The last, dying gasp of a free republic rests solely with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, Senate Republicans \u2013 What are you afraid of? I think I know. If you\u2019ve been following the Trump impeachment saga, you know by now that the GOP has laid aside any feigned allegiance to the Constitution or the rule of law, in order to protect their king, Donald Trump. This week saw Senate Republicans [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3473,"featured_media":6072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,1071],"class_list":["post-8382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-donald-trump","tag-impeachment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GOP Senators Vote to Conceal Evidence and a Republic Dies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are Republican lawmakers afraid of?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2020\/02\/gop-senators-vote-to-conceal-evidence-and-a-republic-dies\/\" \/>\n<meta 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