Durbin: It's not just Trump on trial. It's the Senate, too.

Source: Politico | December 15, 2019 | Aubree Eliza Weaver

He expressed concern that some of his colleagues appear to have already made their decisions on the impeachment proceedings.

Even if Democrats don’t yet have the necessary votes for impeachment, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat isn’t ready to phone it in on the trial.

“It isn’t just the president who’s on trial in an impeachment proceeding,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told CBS’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “The Senate is on trial, and we have a constitutional responsibility.”

Speaking on “Face the Nation,” Durbin expressed concern that some of his colleagues appear to have already made their decisions on the impeachment proceedings — before the trial has even begun.

“I hear people like Sen. [Mitch] McConnell talking about the fact that he sat down with the folks at the White House,” Durbin added, referring to the Senate majority leader. “He’s already made his decision even before he’s taken his oath to promise impartial justice. He sees no need for us to spend a lot of time. My friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, refers to the whole thing as a crock.

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“Let me tell you what happened 20 years ago. They decided that the entire Senate, all 100 members, would go to the old Senate gallery and sit down together,” Durbin said. “We realized at that moment we were embarking on a moment that would be captured in history, this impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. And you had interesting alliances form. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts comes together with Phil Gramm of Texas to talk about the procedures during impeachment. The Senate finally realized we were on trial, too, and we had to comport ourselves in a dignified way.”

But what makes it different this time? Durbin argues that it’s McConnell’s willingness to “ignore logic and common sense and even tradition to take a political position.”

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