Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr (R-NC) expects the Senate impeachment trial to drag on for quite a while.
According to a CNN report Tuesday, Burr predicted that the Senate impeachment trial will last from “six to eight weeks” during a conversation a day earlier at Wake Forest University that also featured Vice Senate Intel Chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, by comparison, lasted five weeks.
CNN reported that Burr also said that he doesn’t believe that much will be learned from the House Intelligence Committee’s public impeachment inquiry hearings this week because most of the transcripts of the testimonies are already public.
Although Burr additionally argued that “nobody wins” from impeachment, citing his previous experience with the Clinton impeachment trial during his tenure as a House representative, CNN reported that the North Carolina Republican refused to predict the outcome of the impeachment proceedings due to the “likelihood” that he will serve as a juror in the Senate trial.
Burr added “the day the [Senate] takes [the impeachment trial] up, we go into session six days a week from 12:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.” according to CNN.
Last week, Burr broke from Trump and Graham by arguing that the identity of the whistleblower, whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry, should remain anonymous to the public.
In September, Burr said that although the Senate Intelligence Committee is committed to making “sure that we get to the bottom of what questions we need answers,” he warned that it would not move at “light speed” like its counterpart in the House.
McTurtle ain’t gonna like that. The longer this runs, the more of his people will pass the primary filing dates, and with that the risk of being taken out by the MAGAts then, and therefore much of his leverage…
https://ballotpedia.org/State_and_federal_candidate_filing_deadlines_for_2020
This is good news, I think. Burr is by all accounts a straight shooter, and he is clearly expecting a trial to go on without any stupid McTurtle tricks to derail the process.
Extended trial/deliberations could/should work to D’s benefit:
Make that handful of the most vulnerable repugnicans cast their ultimate vote on removal closer to the point at which the voters cast their own votes!
Yeah, I’m sure that it will be much more akin to darkness.
I’m not going to speculate if the House will impeach, but I will tell you we’re going to have a Senate trial and it’ll last roughly 6-8 weeks.
Got it, Senator. Thanks!