Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., warned Republicans on Wednesday that "history will haunt them" if they do not vote to convict President Donald Trump in a Senate impeachment trial.
"They're continuing to defend the president," Blumenthal told CNN's "New Day." "What I find so reprehensible, really, is that they will have to eventually face the facts, and we have a responsibility here that is bigger than any one of us."
The process, he added, is one "for the history books," and "history would haunt us if we failed to pursue these impeachment proceedings."
Blumenthal also said Wednesday that news reports that President Donald Trump knew about a whistleblower complaint of his telephone conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy when he released nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine in September, add more evidence to the case against him.
"It empowers further the case against the president," Blumenthal said. "It confirms the evidence coming from the president's own mouth, really. It's still the July 25th conversation about doing us a favor in return for the aid soliciting a bribe in a sense. And what this report shows . . . very, very importantly, is he was caught. He wanted, in effect, to concoct an additional alibi or cover."
Blumenthal also called threats from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to bring former Vice President Joe Biden's son in to testify during a Senate trial a diversion.
"Hunter Biden is far from central to any of the impeachment investigation," Blumenthal said. "He is not only on the periphery, he is irrelevant. And the question about Joe Biden, he has been shown to do nothing wrong."
The senator also rejected the idea of censuring Trump versus impeaching him.
"We have a responsibility under the Constitution when there is an abuse of trust and power," he said. "That kind of responsibility has to be through consideration in the Senate to a trial, so I favor letting that procedure go forward and fully legal."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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