It’s been revealed today that Joe Biden was actually against witnesses during the Clinton impeachment, as were other prominent Democrats at the time:
POLITICO – In January 1999, then-Sen. Joe Biden argued strongly against the need to depose additional witnesses or seek new evidence in a memo sent to fellow Democrats ahead of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
Biden circulated the four-page document, titled “Arguments in Support of a Summary Impeachment Trial,” on Jan. 5, 1999. In his memo, obtained by POLITICO, Biden cited historical precedents from impeachment cases going back to the establishment of the Senate and asserted “The Senate need not hold a ‘full-blown’ trial.
“The Senate may dismiss articles of impeachment without holding a full trial or taking new evidence. Put another way, the Constitution does not impose on the Senate the duty to hold a trial,” Biden wrote at the time.
The Delaware Democrat added later: “In a number of previous impeachment trials, the Senate has reached the judgment that its constitutional role as a sole trier of impeachments does not require it to take new evidence or hear live witness testimony.”
Biden was also worried about “drawing out” the impeachment proceedings and how it would affect good ol’ USA:
In 1999, Biden also said senators should take into account the impact drawing out the impeachment proceedings would have on the country.
“In light of the extensive record already compiled, it may be that the benefit of receiving additional evidence or live testimony is not great enough to outweigh the public costs (in terms of national prestige, faith in public institutions, etc.) of such a proceeding,” Biden said. “While a judge may not take such considerations into account, the Senate is uniquely competent to make such a balance.”
Biden and other Clinton allies — including now-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — lost the witness fight during that 1999 trial. The Senate agreed to depose former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Clinton led to just the second presidential impeachment in history, as well as two other witnesses.
Of course, Democrats will say the same about Republicans, that they were for witnesses before and now are against them. But the truth is that when the GOP was FOR witnesses, there were actual crimes that Clinton was being charged with, including 11 felonies. And it was done on a bipartisan basis.
In this case there are no crimes and there is no bipartisanship, yet witnesses must be heard or the Senate trial is corrupt. Yeah, right.