Thursday during an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) defended congressional Democrats’ efforts to explore options on the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
When asked for his “definitive position” on the issue, Jones, also a former U.S. Attorney for the Clinton administration, laid out the allegations against Trump, which he argued made it constitutionally necessary for Congress to initiate its investigations. He noted one red flag in his view was the behavior of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a personal attorney for Trump.
“My definitive position, Jeff, is that I’m a potential juror, and we don’t have all the facts yet,” Jones said on “The Jeff Poor Show.” “I have said I support the House of Representatives trying to get the facts because this is very serious. This is very serious when you’ve got the president potentially offering quid pro quos, even though the quid pro quo is not necessary. But the transcript of that phone call was very disturbing because he has got his personal lawyer running a shadow foreign policy with Ukraine trying to dig up dirt on a political opponent. That is really disturbing. I think it puts our national security at risk. It also an abuse of power.”
“But it just like I’ve said – right now, the impeachment process over in the House is going to play out one way or another,” he continued. “That may or may not come over to the Senate. But when it does, if it does, then I will be ready. We will do our due diligence, and we will act as responsible jurors to determine the facts. That is where I stand now. Where I stand begins with my oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And it will end that way. And in the middle, we’re going to be putting the pieces of the puzzle together to see if the dots are connected. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they’re not.”
Jones added, “So we’ll see how that goes. But right now, wholly inappropriate for folks on both sides of the aisle to go to partisan corners and start giving their opinion on the outcome of what is a very serious process that country should not and does not want. I didn’t ask for this, didn’t want this. But we are where we are and will deal with it the way I think the Constitution demands.”
Regarding the procedure the House of Representatives was using to this point, Jones said he had no qualms with it and that it was similar to how Congress handled both former Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon’s impeachment.
“I think it is proceeding the way it should be,” he added. “The House appears to be moving expeditiously. I think that is a good thing. It is proceeding in a way that they are getting whatever evidence they can – similar to the way the things were done in the Clinton impeachment, similar to the way things were done to the Nixon impeachment. You’ve got to do a lot of this behind closed doors. That was done in prior proceedings. I think they are doing it in the right way. People are given an opportunity. This is kind of like a grand jury. This is not a trial. If there is a trial, it will be in front of the United States Senate. So, I think they’re moving quickly. I think they’re moving expeditiously. We’ll see how this plays out. But there obviously working very hard.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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