Rounds Supports Resolution Condemning House Democrats’ Closed Door Impeachment Process
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement after signing onto a resolution condemning House Democrats’ closed door impeachment process. The resolution, led by Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, has 39 senate cosponsors.
“Democrats have been intent on taking down this president since day one. The current impeachment inquiry is being conducted in the House without a vote, behind closed doors and it fails to give the president the opportunity to defend himself or confront his accusers. There is no due process.
“The president deserves the same rights as every American when faced with a charge or allegation. Their process raises serious questions about the fairness of the inquiry, which is why I signed onto Chairman Graham’s resolution.
“House Democrats should be focused on issues, such as the USMCA, instead of focusing only on this unfair and unprecedented impeachment process.”
The resolution:
- calls on the House of Representatives, prior to proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry;
- calls on the House of Representatives to provide President Trump, like every other American, with due process, to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the accusations against him that would form any basis for impeachment; and
- calls on the House of Representatives to provide members of the minority with the ability to participate fully in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas and other compulsory process.
Full text of the resolution is HERE.
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How about thune? What the hell is going on? Why didn’t Dusty march right into that bs hearing yesterday with Steve King and demand the proceeding be open to the public?
Thune?
Thune is on the list of support
The # is up to 46
How stupid are you? There were 3 congressional committees with Democrats and Republicans in the room.
This was nothing but a publicity stunt by GOP members who weren’t on the committees.
It’s the same process as the Benghazi hearings last Congress when GOP members, who were not on the committees with jurisdiction, were kicked out as well.
When will people wake up and start realizing when politicians are only doing things for publicity and to wake up the base?
Trumpublicans will get that when they vote on impeachment. Until then, the Dems are following house rules set forth by Republicans when they wrote them. He will get his due process if they determine to impeach and then public hearings will be held. What a bunch of cry babies these trumpublicans are. I guess us Human Scum will have to repair the party after they try to destroy it.
It was a good idea then but not now! waahhhhh waahhhhh!
House rules that Nixon and Clinton for impeachment…nope..unprecedented witch hunt
Thank you Senator Rounds
The house rules changed, son, and Republicans did it. Keep spewing those buzz words. You guys are grasping at straws and you know how bad it looks.
Senator Rounds, Speaker Boener, a Republican, changed the rules and now you must follow them.
They only changed subpoena rule. Nothing regarding impeachment.
Senator Rounds, like the honorable Steve King, cares about the sanctity of the rule of law and the preservation of our United States Constitution. Too bad John Thune and Dusty Johnson don’t care. Too bad that they are unwilling to stand up for western civilization. Too bad John and Dusty are unwilling to stand behind the greatest President that our nation has ever had. Trump’s call was perfect. This is a stupid witch hunt.
Greatest President? What has he done but cause a trillion dollar decline in the world economy not even counting the US decline in GDP over his trade wars. He has not fixed the border crisis nor the infrastructure cause nor has he settled anything with N. Korea. His behavior has given the U.S. a black eye throughout our allies. He also threw the farmers under the bus and then stole from another sector, the U.S. trade sector employing 39 million people, to give to his farmers so they would continue to vote for him.
Sounds like a real dufous to me, a Republican, rather than the greatest President of all time, but you’ll come to see that like I did soon enough.
Mr. Lassle,
If you intend to call someone a derogatory and poorly thought-out term, you should at least spell it correctly. As to the substance of my comments above, you are sadly mistaken on all fronts. I would respectfully suggest that you stop getting your information from fake media sources. Donald Trump has had the greatest presidency in the history of the United States, the country has never done better, and he is being unfairly treated; far worse than even Lincoln. That neither Dusty nor John are willing to come to his rescue is an abomination and a black mark upon their characters.
I like spelling dufus as dufous as it is often used in prose. Nonymouse you must be a real stay-at-home South Dakotan not to realize the damage Trump has done to the economy and to the sanctity of the United States in many areas of concern. “Donald Trump has had the greatest presidency in the history of the United States, the country has never done better…” is your statement that goes against all factual data and comes from an ignorant far right extremist with little knowledge of U.S. and world economics. The only metric holding up the U.S. economy now is consumer spending and much of that spending is by credit and soon they will wake up to the fact they have to pay this borrowing back. And do not mistake the rise in the stock market to the mainstreet economy as are two different metrics. The stock market is way overvalued and a severe correction is around the corner due to the declining U.S. economy.
Donald Trump has accomplished nothing yet brags with voracity that he has so let’s look at his failures: failure to repeal Obamacare, North Korea, infrastructure legislation, the border crisis and lying about building new walls which he has not, failure to run his administration tightly with the highest turnover of Cabinet and White House staff than any POTUS in American history, Ukraine corruption and now vacating support for the Kurds in Syria drawing criticism from both sides of the aisle (Donald Trump owns property in Turkey and has been implicated on taking a bribe from the Turkish president over those properties to allow Turkey to invade Kurdish held northern Syria), and of course his disdain for the U.S. Constitution calling the Emolument Clause phony.
Trump has also thrown farmers and 39 million Americans working in the trade industry under the bus causing severe financial hardships yet you still believe he is the best POTUS ever in the history of the U.S. As bad as Obama was, Trump makes him look like a school boy compared to the damage Trump has done to America.
The economy was in an expansion mode since 2015 and with the Republican tax cuts and lessening of regulations, the economy went into overdrive and had very little to do with Donald Trump, more so with Paul Ryan pushing tax cuts for U.S. corporations. Trump supports unions, which is a Democratic plank not Republican, and has decimated U.S. manufacturing whose metrics are showing a rapid decline due to Trump’s trade wars.
As for his USMCA, please realize that this treaty is exactly like NAFTA with only $70 million more in milk exports to Canada, however automobile prices will skyrocket due to Donald Trump’s USMCA. The USMCA also does not account for any mechanism on trade disputes as in Mexican dumping of agriculture and other goods into the U.S. as did not NAFTA. Trump has lied to you from day one on his accomplishments. He’s a marketeer and played you like a drum. The damage is looming over America right now ready to pounce.
Trump is an egregious liar and conman who played you and millions of other uneducated far right extremists. He is not one of we Republicans.
Nonymouse, you are also a coward who won’t identify yourself like many Republican politicians today using fake names to show their real ideologues. One is Senator Mitt Romney who is afraid to show how he really feels about Trump as a Republican so he writes under an assumed nom de plume.
Nonymouse is probably a gas station attendant in tiny town, South Dakota for all we know with not even a high school diploma or any experience outside of hunting.
“Honorable” Steve King? You mean that racist a**hat from across the border? Yeah, right.
You’re speaking of this Steve King?
“The re-election campaign of U.S. Representative Steve King, R-Iowa, released an internal poll that shows a strong lead among the five-way Republican primary field.”
“According to the poll, King also enjoys a 72 percent approval rating among Republican voters.”
“The pollsters asked Republican voters, whether they believe the media portrayal of King as a white nationalist and racist or believe King who said he was misquoted and that the article was another example of fake news. Only 15 percent of those polled said they believed the media portrayal of King, while 74 percent said they believe King was misquoted.”
You also believe all those who support King are racists too?
They must be, like all of the Republicans that support Neil Tapio in South Dakota, a far right white supremist.
Back it up, bet you can’t. But, I bet Tapio could take you to court for defamation and win.
@7:50 am must still be searching for statements Tapio has made indicating he’s a white supremacist. Something, anything he has said to support their claim and would hold up in a court room.
LOL, public figure. Now what did you call Obama Neil?
Neal is not afraid to sign his name. I am; you are too.
Many public figures have sued and won defamation suits. Come on, let’s see the proof Tapio is a white supremacist. Since you can’t even spell his name correctly, I’m doubtful you have anything substantial. You believe lies and are easily manipulated – Satan is excited you’re on his team.
Name them. Tapio was advised to tone down his anti-Muslim rhetoric during his 2016 candidacy for Congress. He wouldn’t do it. He went after the people, not the national security interests of unfettered migration into the U.S. That action is not one of a statesman but of a far right extremist.
Not all. Some are just morons.
Rep. Steve King, who was stripped of his committee assignments by the whole GOP caucus, is the joke of the GOP party and trash like him shouldn’t be allowed in.
King’s 72% approval rating among Republican voters are laughing at the trash you throw out. Many so-called Republicans within the party do not represent the people. That should be obvious, but when you’re a soldier for lies nothing makes sense.
Who is your master?
Now that Rounds is backing a toothless resolution, how about gettin Graham to commencement those hearings he said he was going to do?
Thank you, Senator Rounds. I appreciate your willingness to stand for our President and for calling out injustice when you see it.
what an a** kisser. Where were you on EB-5, Gear-Up, and Common Core?
I noticed Tapio going at Thune now. Does he want to take on the entire GOP establishment?
Sounds like that is what Trump is doing.
Actually, going after the entire Republican party is what needs to be done on several fronts. I consider Trump to be a RINO. Not because Trump will not do what Republicans are supposed to do, but because Republicans will not do what Republicans are supposed to do. The leadership of the Republican party needs a complete shakeup. People who have been involved as long as John Thune are little more than an occasional vote. Dusty Johnson appears to be a go along to get along type of fellow who hopes by keeping his head down, he can keep getting this cushy job.
The sad part is when someone does stand up to be heard they are falsely accused of racism and worse. Congressman King is a good example.
Rounds is south Dakota common sense.
Common sense in South Dakota is a basketball player, an insurance salesman with an easy political science degree, and a comedienne whose best attribute is as a master of ceremonies. I don’t see any statesmen in Thune, Rounds, or Johnson, respectively. They certainly are not Republicans. The alternatives are hopefuls like Neil Tapio, a far right extremist white supremist. What has happened to the Republican party where we could respect our politicians as statesmen doing what’s right for our country?
Jeff, I see in a few comments you want to question everyone’s academic pedigree and their intelligence. Where did you go to school and what degree do you have? Please enlighten all of us what institutions we needed to attend and what majors we needed to be qualified to comment on the same blog as you?
Yeah, I have a thing for the easiest degree in college curriculums, political science, that are used by cheap and crooked lawyers to gain access to law school. Political science majors also liked to interject their science part of political science into debates over the climate phenomenon and call top U.S. and world physicists quacks as skeptical climate science. I don’t know how many times we debated these science illiterates and when they couldn’t win called us “deniers”. I work with the top world scientists on this issue as a skeptic. My background is in engineering and physics and my close colleague was before his resignation the Director of the Office of Emerging Technologies & Science at the White House and chaired the WH group in opposition to the Green New Deal. My mentor in physics was the late Dr. Roger W. Cohen formerly chief physicist at ExxonMobile and inventor of the many technologies enjoyed today.
Hope that answers your concerns and why we all despise political science majors and lawyers who think they are superior in science than are scientists. My dog could get these degrees in PS and law.
It does not explain how you look down on everyone with a degree that you consider “less” than yours. I believe that you questioned the education and intelligence of any Republican who supports Trump? Also, I guess I should not be proud of my son that is in law school right now? His sister, that is in pharmacy school, always tells him that she is smarter than him. Maybe she is right? Hopefully they wont be arrogant jackasses even though their degrees are impressive. Or are they?
So it sounds like Thune isn’t so sure Trump is innocent. But then he got his talking to and fell back in line with the party. Sad.
The problem is everyone keeps trying to litigate matters in the media instead of allowing measured due process and regular order to proceed to insure the truth is found and justice is served.
While the premise of the Mueller investigation proved to be bogus (which may or not be sinister as not all investigations result in findings of wrong-doing), it did proceed in regular order. Same with the recent shifting of the Durham investigation from administrative to criminal.
The people who are asserting the Dems are just following Republican change are intentionally or unintentionally telling only half the story (and half-truths are not the truth but deceptions). The procedures changes were regarding oversight investigations of the executive branch. These changes have absolutely no connection to impeachment protocol (which is was developed over time and written procedure in the form of rules don’t exist).
The truth is the Democrats have initiated an impeachment investigation using the powers of the House of Representatives without a vote of the body which is unprecedented. Further, they are conducting the investigation without participation of the minority party (which is also unprecedented. Finally, they are conducting interviews whichout oversight to ensure the Truth is being pursued with legitimate tactics.
Anyone who is comfortable with this (regardless of view toward Trump) is not a friend to basic civil liberties and our nations basic democratic republican principles but one who is comfortable with mob rule and yes political metaphorical lynchings.
“without participation of the minority party”
Now who’s telling half truths? There are Republicans on the committee.
Yepper. And those Republicans on the Committee were not invited to the testimony in the SCIF or involved in the gathering of any evidence, interviewing sources of information, or issueing subpoena’s. That is why they stormed the SCIF.
But, you guys are so tyrannical that you will tell half-truths all the way to the end. Minority rights have no place with today’s democrats.
Sounds almost like the Benghazi investigation. Repubs kept those even more private.
You are such a liar. The Dems weren’t there by choice. Sign your name so your credibility in real life will match your secret true character.
Our constitution has no place with Republicans. Emoluments clause? Even our state Republicans can’t follow it based on the two cases this year, soon to be three.
Your selective memory is, once again, telling in its application. First, recall that in both Clinton and Nixon’s instances, special investigators had been working on the cases for a while. Four years to be precise in Clinton’s case. Second, GOP members in committee have a chance to question witnesses and begin developing their own defense for the impeachment case. And yes, let’s be honest, it is a defense they will be attempting to form. Finally, your lamentations about minority rights crack me up given the Senate Majority Leader’s declaration of himself as the grim reaper for democratic legislation and subsequent blockage of how many bills? Get real, Troy. It is just awfully telling that everyone is all of a sudden so amped about legislative process when it hasn’t been all that important up until now (Merrick Garland says hi) and have little to nothing to say about the underlying charge, that the President abused his power to investigate his leading political opponent.