Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Wednesday told The New York Times that he thinks he can change Republicans’ minds on additional witnesses and documents in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Schumer told the Times’ podcast “The Daily” on Wednesday morning that he believes that some Republicans can be convinced, but others are set against.
“For maybe a good chunk of the Republicans appealing to their higher instincts, their ‘better angels,’ as Abraham Lincoln used to call them, is meaningless. Because there aren’t too many ‘better angels’ around there. But for a good number of Republicans, considerably more than four, the idea that this is historic, the idea that this is so important to the nation, and the idea that we are a nation founded on truth, that the Founding Fathers believed that the truth would prevail, and history is upon them, and they’re going to be remembered for this vote long after they’ve left the Senate, has some effect.”
When pressed, Schumer said, “I’m making a case that truth should matter, this does not apply to every Republican, this ‘better angels’ argument, but it applies to some, and those are the ones I try to talk to.”
He added, “we only need four, and we know there’s about 25 we’re never going to get, so you’ve got to focus on the people you can possibly get,” noting that there’s “about 12 Republicans who have never said we shouldn’t have witnesses and documents… they have not made an argument that there shouldn’t be witnesses documents.”
Schumer did admit that “it’s an uphill fight,” but said Democrats are “making progress.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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