WATCH: Republican Sen. David Perdue Talks Senate Trial Process And Pushes Back On Question About Defending Obama
On Sunday, Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd to discuss the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
Near the beginning of the segment, Todd asked Perdue about what the trial will “look like.”
Perdue replied, stating that it’s dependent on how the Tuesday vote goes, adding that Republicans have “tried to enter these negotiations with the other side, but they won’t have any conversation until we deal with witnesses up front,” which allegedly isn’t the way things were done “during the Clinton trial.”
…Mitch McConnell will put forward his proposal, we’ll have a vote on that. That proposal right now will look very similar to 24 hours of presentation by the House managers over two days, and then 24 hours of presentation by the president’s team over two days, and then 16 hours of questions submitted by the members in writing to the chief justice. The chief justice decides whether or not they get asked and how they get asked and [in] what sequence. And then we have, at that point, the opportunity to do exactly what we did after phase one in the Clinton trial, and that is to decide where we go from here? Do we have more witnesses? Do we need clarification?
Todd then asked why Republicans allegedly don’t want to hear from Giuliani associate Lev Parnas “under oath.” Perdue responded, saying that Parnas’ information is “second hand,” and that “he’s been meeting with the House Intel Committee.”
If the House felt like this information was pertinent, I would think they would have included his testimony in this information.
Todd pressed Perdue as to why Parnas ended up “so close to the president.” Perdue dismissed that suggestion. Todd then asked Perdue if he is troubled by Parnas’ proximity to the president via Rudy Giuliani. Perdue also dismissed that suggestion before shifting gears to the impeachment process as a whole.
The headlines of the Washington Post on the day President Trump was inaugurated said that the campaign to impeach this president has already begun. This is an impeachment looking for reasons. They want to undo the 2016 election and, in fact, the 2020 election, I believe.
Perdue castigated the House trial as “not fair” and “illegitimate” because Trump was “denied … due process.” He claimed the Senate trial would hopefully be fair.
After a back-and-fourth about the substance, or lack thereof, of the impeachment charges, Todd asked Perdue if he would be comfortable defending former President Obama if he were in the same situation.
Perdue shot back:
In Fast and Furious, he [Obama] did exactly this. He withheld evidence from the House of Representatives, and the Republicans decided that it was not obstruction of Congress. The Democrats agreed, and we did not pursue it. Nancy Pelosi, Nadler, all said that that was not obstruction. And yet, in this case, when the president decides to use executive privilege, they now, all of a sudden, say, “Oh, no. That is obstruction of Congress.” So, it’s a little bit hypocritical…
