Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) on Thursday released a video containing his latest thoughts on the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
Jones’ remarks came after Wednesday’s question and answer style proceedings, in which senators got to submit written questions for either the House impeachment managers or the president’s legal team to answer verbally in front of the chamber.
Alabama’s junior senator referred to these proceedings as “tiring” and “exhausting,” complaining about the amount of “softball questions” submitted by both Democrats and Republicans.
“In any event, a couple of takeaways unfortunately are not in the president’s favor, for people out there that support him,” Jones added.
“First of all, I think that Professor [Alan] Dershowitz really blew it,” he continued. “I think that his lecturing about how right he was and wrong how everybody else was was a little bit insulting to the entire academic community, not to mention the Senate of the United States.”
Jones mockingly said, “You would think that we would just go ahead and disband the Supreme Court and just appoint him as the supreme justice of the court because he’s always right.”
“And quite frankly, I was especially concerned when he essentially talked about the divisiveness in this country and how we should just go ahead and vote to acquit because everyone knows the president’s going to get acquitted in this and we should just do that to try and bring everybody together,” Jones decried. “So what he was saying, this constitutional scholar, was essentially saying, ‘Violate your oath.’ Because we are a divided country that has been stoked in large measure mostly by his client over the last few years. ‘Just ignore your oath to do impartial justice, and let’s just get this over with.’ And I found that rather insulting.”
“The other thing clearly that was troubling was the president’s counsel essentially confirming what the president has said in a press conference at some point that under Article Two [of the U.S. Constition], ‘I can do anything I want,’” the senator continued. “They said that with regard to campaign finance, with interference from a foreign country, that was somewhat of a stunning statement from them. And very, very, very troubling as I think a lot of commentators are talking about today.”
Jones then transitioned into once again demanding witnesses be heard before a vote be taken to acquit or convict Trump on the two impeachment charges against him.
The senator accused Trump’s legal team of “bullying,” referring to Jay Sekulow warning Wednesday that calling witnesses would drag the trial on for an extended period of time and stop the Senate from handling the important business of the American people.
“This is too important, this is too serious to let time somehow get in the way of this,” Jones claimed.
He then proceeded to compare the urgency of this matter to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Watch:
If it takes some time to do this the right way, so be it. This is too important for us to rush through. pic.twitter.com/24nvTMu2ct
— Doug Jones (@SenDougJones) January 30, 2020
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
