Senator Cornyn

Cornyn on Fox: Additional Witnesses Would Drag Out Trial for Months

January 27, 2020

I would say that the problem the impeachment managers have is they put the cart ahead of the horse. They put impeachment before producing the evidence, which they should've done in the House inquiry.

There’ll have to be litigation… That could take at least weeks, but probably more like months. In the meantime, the Senate is foreclosed from doing anything to bring down drug prices, pass a highway bill, things like that that we ought to be doing.

WASHINGTON –Today on Fox News’ Bill Hemmer Reports, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the second day of the White House defense team’s opening arguments during the Senate’s impeachment trial. Excerpts of his interview are below, and video can be found here.

On Additional Witnesses:

SEN. CORNYN: “I would say that the problem the impeachment managers have is they put the cart ahead of the horse. They put impeachment before producing the evidence, which they should’ve done in the House inquiry. We could’ve avoided all of this uncertainty now. We’ll still vote on Friday on whether additional witnesses will be required.”

On Timing for Witness Vote:

BILL HEMMER: “Let me just move this forward a little bit here: if you get witnesses, how does this trial change? What happens then?”

SEN. CORNYN: “Well, it goes on forever and ever and ever, because what’s going to happen is that there are claims of executive privilege in the course of this Senate trial. There’ll have to be litigation, decided in the District Court here in the District of Columbia, then it will go up to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. That could take at least weeks, but probably more like months. In the meantime, the Senate is foreclosed from doing anything to bring down drug prices, pass a highway bill, things like that that we ought to be doing.”

“That vote won’t occur until Friday. First we’d like to give the President’s lawyers a chance to tell their side of the story after listening for 23 hours to the impeachment managers.”