Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Sunday he’s “disappointed” in the vast number of Republicans unwilling to put partisan politics aside to evaluate allegations of President Trump’s wrongdoing as part of the ongoing impeachment process.
Brown called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for saying last week that he’ll work in “total coordination” with the White House during the expected Senate trial.
“It’s why I’m so disappointed in my colleagues’ see-no-evil, hear-no-evil attitude,” Brown said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “That they don’t want to look at anything that might disagree with their world view of Republicanism and this president.”
Brown did not directly respond when asked about Democratic senators who have suggested their minds are made up to convict Trump ahead of the trial, other than saying: “I won’t speak for others.”
But he said he “shares the outrage” of McConnell’s remarks on coordinating with the White House.
“We take an oath that at the beginning of the trial that we will look at the evidence,” Brown said.
“I have very strong feelings about the president, I supported impeachment, he did things that Richard Nixon never did. He solicited a bribe from a foreign leader, but I don’t know that it rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, that it rises to the level of conviction and removal, until I see the evidence, [until] I hear the prosecution which is the House managers, until I hear the president’s defense. Then, you make the decision based on the evidence.” {mosads}
The House is expected to vote this week on two articles of impeachment against Trump after they passed the House Judiciary Committee in a party-line vote.
A Senate trial is expected to start in early January. Sixty-seven votes in the upper chamber would be needed to convict Trump, who is expected to be acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate.