Rubio should push back against McConnell’s plan for a sham impeachment trial | Opinion
The U.S. House of Representatives last month made history, for only the third time in its existence, by passing articles of impeachment against a president, this time indicting President Trump for abuse of power.
We already know on what side of history individual lawmakers in the U.S. Senate will stand. And that’s unfortunate, because it should be a matter of conscience and the Constitution, not lockstep party loyalty. However, the real blow to democracy lies in Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s shameless boast that he will work hand-in-glove with Trump’s White House to ensure the president’s acquittal, essentially promising a sham trial.
His position is abominable, hyper-partisan and un-American.
Florida’s two U.S. senators, too, have each tipped his hand. Sen. Rick Scott is a reliable automaton, toeing the Republican Party’s line no matter what. As such, it allowed him to do damage to his state during his two terms as governor.
He says that the articles of impeachment, despite the president’s own admission that he sought a “favor” from Ukraine, are based on “hearsay.”
Sen. Marco Rubio usually presents himself as more thoughtful, even though he twists himself into knots to justify the unjustifiable of this administration’s policies and actions. It’s why the Editorial Board called him Trump’s “sycophant” last year.
Rubio tweeted recently that not one senator in the 100-member chamber will be an “impartial juror” when the Senate trial commences. There’s no doubt that he is right.
The partisan rift in the Republican-majority Senate reflects the stark divide across the country over whether the president should be ousted. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month found Americans deadlocked: 48 percent supporting the president’s removal, 48 percent against that outcome.
If, as Rubio implies, the outcome is a foregone conclusion, he should step up as Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has, and urge McConnell to hold as rigorous a trial as possible. The Senate president already has ruled out impartiality. The least he can do is hew to his constitutional duties and conduct a trial that informs rather than misleads. Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate until, she says, she has a clear understanding of the trial process.
As Florida’s senior senator, Rubio will have to credibly justify accepting the abuse of power of which the president stands accused. This son of Cuban immigrants who bashes (some) dictators, who excoriates their inhumane treatment of those who oppose them will have to explain to his constituents why he was willing to hand Ukraine over to Vladimir Putin. That was the danger if Trump had withheld U.S. military aid from Ukraine until it launched an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
And now that the United States has closed President Obama’s opening to Cuba, Rubio should acknowledge that this has allowed Russia to renew ties to the island, making another deeply regressive and dangerous re-entry into this hemisphere. According to the Associated Press, “Russian-Cuban trade has more than doubled since 2013, to an expected $500 million this year, mostly in Russian exports to Cuba.”
The Editorial Board has consistently sought solid leadership from Marco Rubio — and has consistently been disappointed. He has the political heft to decry McConnell’s tactics. Doing so would place him on the “right-er” side of history.
This is an updated version of an editorial originally published in the Miami Herald on Dec. 22.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM.