Thursday during an appearance on Huntsville radio’s WVNN, U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) said he would not be influenced by political forces on either the right or the left regarding his vote on impeachment.
Media reports in recent days had raised questions about the possibility Jones would “defect” and vote to acquit President Donald Trump, and what that might mean for him politically.
Jones indicated on “The Jeff Poor Show” that it would not be “worth their time” for any party to push him one way or another and that he would “follow his oath as an impartial juror.”
“They know that is just not something that is even worth their time – pushing me one way or another,” he said. “Folks on the right know it is not worth their time pushing me one way or another. I’m going to look at this in a very judicial way, and I’m going to follow my oath to be an impartial juror. That’s what the oath says. You know, what I’ve been focused on is really the process. I’ve called for consistently a full, fair and complete trial. Sometimes we’ve talked about it in terms ‘do the dots connect,’ ‘does the evidence connect.’ That’s probably not the best analogy to make. You know, I’ve tried a lot of big cases in my day, both as a prosecutor and defense lawyer – and it’s really more like a puzzle, a piece of the puzzle. You have these trials where there are pieces that fit together, and then sometimes there are often pieces missing.”
“The question will be at the end of the day, ‘Can you see the picture? Do you know the picture?'” he continued. “There’s going to be missing pieces in this for sure, but the question is can you see the picture at the end of the day. For me, I think the American people, I think, the American people deserve to have as many of those pieces in place as possible. And I don’t think it is appropriate for the president to withhold and block testimony from those with first-hand knowledge because at some point you’ve got to question why that’s being blocked – if it is testimony that could exonerate him, if it is documents that could exonerate him – one would think he would want us to hear it. I certainly would want us to see that. I want to hear from these folks, and I have no idea what they’re going to say. But I would like to hear from them. They’ve got the first-hand knowledge. I would like to see the documents.”
Jones noted distinctions between the House process and the Senate process, one of which allowed for Trump to have a lawyer present to cross-examine witnesses.
“My whole point going forward has been a full, fair and complete process and trial,” Jones added. “That’s what I think the president deserves, and remember he will have a lawyer here. He has criticized the House for their processes. But he will have a lawyer here when these witnesses testify that he could cross-examine or examine if the case may be. I think he deserves a fair trial. I think the American people deserve a trial that is as complete as possible, and that means cooperation from the administration.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
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