According to a new report from Congressional reporter Michael McAuliff, a total of 21 GOP Senators got up out of their seats yesterday during Donald Trump’s official Senate impeachment trial as Representative Adam Schiff delivered his speech to the Senators — some of whom reportedly were walking around to stretch their legs while others had apparently completely left the Senate chambers altogether — a move that flies in the face of Senate rules requiring the members of Congress to remain in their seats at all times throughout the hearings.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer penned a lengthy letter to their fellow Congressmen and women, in which they outlined in detail the rules and regulations that Senators would be expected to follow throughout the formal impeachment hearings in the Senate — including but not limited to, “Senators should plan to be in attendance at all times during the proceedings” as well as “remain in their seats at all times they are on the Senate floor during the impeachment proceedings.”
Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer write a letter to senators outlining access procedures in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial. pic.twitter.com/TZHCkdowdN
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 15, 2020
However, it seems that more than one-third of the 53 Republican members of the Senate who are present to play their part in ultimately deciding the fate of Donald Trump didn’t believe that said rules apply to them. Or, at the very least, just didn’t care to follow them.
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“Just counted 21 empty seats on the GOP side of the Senate, 2 on the Dem side, a couple hours into Schiff’s presentation. Some are just stretching their legs, but most are not in the chamber. Some of them have been out of there for a while,” McAuliff wrote on Twitter yesterday afternoon.
Just counted 21 empty seats on the GOP side of the Senate, 2 on the Dem side, a couple hours into Schiff’s presentation. Some are just stretching their legs, but most are not in the chamber. Some of them have been out of there for a while.
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) January 22, 2020
He then went on to specify that Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, and Jim Risch were of the most notable members of Congress to have been absent from their seats for a “long time.”
Couldn’t see when lot of people left, but Graham, Cassidy and Risch were all out for a long time. Graham scooted back when Schiff was talking about Zelensky cancelling the CNN interview.
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) January 22, 2020
While we expected this sort of childish, immature behavior out of the South Carolina, Trump-sympathizing Senator Lindsey Graham, who has repeatedly and publicly declared that he’s already made up his mind in regard to Donald’s transgressions and essentially wouldn’t be giving this very real and very important process the time of day, it is a bit more surprising to see from Senator Cassidy — who stated earlier this week that he intended to “listen to both sides with an open mind” before he made his final decision.
But Senator Risch, well, he’s already kicking things off on a bad foot no more than a couple of days into the hearings, as this marks the second time now that he’s missed a good portion of what was going on inside the Senate chambers. But I suppose at least this time he was up and moving around, rather than falling asleep in his chair.
Featured image via screen capture
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