Cornyn says Senate impeachment trial can't repeat the 'circus-like atmosphere we saw in the House'
Republican Sen. John Cornyn weighs in on the debate over witnesses testifying in a Senate impeachment trial on 'America's Newsroom.'
The impeachment trial against President Trump could wrap up in the Senate in just a few weeks, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tuesday.
Appearing on "America's Newsroom" with hosts Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith, Cornyn said he presumes that the trial will start the day after Martin Luther King Day, on Jan. 21.
Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has yet to tell her colleagues who she plans to name as impeachment managers, she suggested that the House will vote Wednesday on a resolution to name them and transmit the articles to the Senate.
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In addition, Fox News has learned that the president's legal defense team has essentially formed, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone taking the lead.
"It just seems ironic that Speaker Pelosi ... has sat on the articles of impeachment for 28 days and [now] she wants to wait one more day in deference to the Democratic presidential debate," Cornyn remarked. "She knows that this looks really bad because after saying it was a compelling, urgent, and constitutional matter – sitting on it for almost a month – I think undermines her most basic argument."
The Texas lawmaker said that senators should be careful about "this notion of presenting brand new live witnesses during the course of an impeachment trial" because they can be "unpredictable."
"I just don't think we should have a continuation of the circus-like atmosphere that we've seen in the House," he told the "America's Newsroom" co-hosts.
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Hemmer asked whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., may call for a vote on each article of impeachment after each side presents its case, but without allowing new witnesses. He said that could mean the trial would wrap up within two weeks.
"I agree with that, Bill," Cornyn responded, adding that it will come down to whether senators feel they have "heard enough" to make a decision on whether the conduct is impeachable.
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"The fact may be that the facts aren't all that disputed and the only question is, given this set of facts, does that rise to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor under the Constitution and justify the impeachment, the conviction, and the removal of a president 11 months before the next general election?" he asked.
"I am very skeptical, as you might know," he noted. "But, that is the way I think this is going to go forward."
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