Jeff Merkley: ‘The Vast Majority of the Republicans and All of the Democrats Think’ Trump ‘Did It’

RUSH EXCERPT:

MELBER: "Before we get into where we’re headed, I’m curious given what we’ve covered with some senators saying no, Trump did it, do you a sense given the time you’ve spent in that Senate floor together, what portion of the Senate thinks he did it?"
MERKLEY: "Oh, I think the vast majority of the Republicans and all of the Democrats think he did it. So many of our Republican colleagues have acknowledged to us what the acts of this man, Donald Trump, are completely unacceptable, there is so much evidence presented but they feel trapped by the power of the base of the Republican Party."
MELBER: "Right. So let me follow up this way. Because this is really interesting and I think Senator Alexander may have uncorked more than he perhaps meant to as we go into next week. If most of them think he did it and as you say a political calculation of the fear of response cutting against him and also what I might call the minimization, well he did it but it is not quite bad enough. Do you have a sense of what would be bad enough for them? I think that is a very interesting and important question for the republic right now. Had the investigation actually been announced or had it proceeded, or had a member of the Biden family been arrested abroad, is there a line at which more of the Republican colleagues who you say basically privately or otherwise indicate he did it, would actually be moved or is there no line?"
MERKLEY: "I think there is no clear line. Because so much could have happened and they made the argument, the lawyers made the argument on the floor, that as long as the president had in his mind the fact that he considered this in the national interest then it couldn’t be criticized or impeachable. And while that sounds absolutely absurd and it is under any rule of law, it is a story that the Republicans are claiming in this process. And I must say tonight was a tragedy and a travesty. It is a tragedy because we now have a trial for the first time in U.S. History, a Senate impeachment trial turned into a cover-up. And it is a tragedy because this is going to reverberate for the dysfunction of the Senate and the empowerment of an imperial presidency for who knows how far into the future."