Former George W. Bush Adviser: There’s No Need for a Senate Impeachment Trial

A former adviser to the George W. Bush campaign has told Fox News that there is no need for an actual trial in the Senate following President Donald Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. Brad Blakeman told Fox & Friends on Thursday that the Senate could avoid holding a trial if the senators wished.

Blakeman argued in an op-ed for The Hill that the Senate had ‘options’. He reiterated this argument on Fox.

“They sure do [have options],” Blakeman said. “And Nancy Pelosi has no leverage over the Senate. Mitch McConnell did not nose his way into the impeachment process in the House. And she has no standing to do that in the Senate. The Senate does have options. As a matter of fact, they have many options.”

“The first option would be after the charges are read in the Senate against the President, his side can make a motion to dismiss, which is a procedural vote that only requires a simple majority of 51 votes.”

“And there is no need for a trial because the charges don’t hold up to the constitutional standard,” Blakeman claimed.

“They could have an abbreviated trial when they’ve heard enough. They can vote or they can have a full trial with many witnesses and prolonged. I don’t think the Democrats want that because six of the jurors, senators, are running against the President themselves. Hardly impartial. Or the nuclear option as I call it, is they can delay the trial until November 4th. The day after the election. And let the American people decide who our next president will be.”

Blakeman’s suggestion that Senate Republicans engage in political chicanery is not a new one. However, his claim that the charges against Trump do not warrant a trial has been widely derided by legal and historical scholars.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.