Texas Sen. Ted Cruz launched a podcast with Daily Wire personality Michael Knowles to discuss President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
The podcast, titled Verdict with Ted Cruz, features the pair discussing developments of the president’s impeachment immediately after the Senate trial adjourns each day.
“Announcing #Verdict: a podcast where @michaeljknowles and I discuss the latest from the @realDonaldTrump #ImpeachmentTrial and more as soon as I leave the Senate floor,” the senator announced in a tweet on Wednesday.
Announcing #Verdict: a podcast where @michaeljknowles and I discuss the latest from the @realDonaldTrump #ImpeachmentTrial and more as soon as I leave the Senate floor…
Subscribe and watch/listen now on:
Spotify https://t.co/GlfmUtCXLV
YouTube https://t.co/l1altlHGpr pic.twitter.com/SUL9cRPOAf
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 22, 2020
[Also read: Ted Cruz floats witness reciprocity to get Biden and whistleblower to testify]
The first episode, which runs approximately 25 minutes long, featured the two discussing the history of impeachment, the legal interpretations of the Congress’s power, and the oral arguments by the House’s impeachment managers.
“Is there a legal requirement for impeachment?” Knowles asked.
“There absolutely is. The Constitution specifies what’s required,” Cruz answered. “If you get to the heart of the problem with the House Democrats’ case here, it’s that they haven’t alleged treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors.”
The two discussed how, at the Constitutional Convention, the framers discussed giving Congress the power to impeach the president for maladministration rather than high crimes or misdemeanors. George Mason, who was initially an antifederalist, proposed the measure but faced pushback from James Madison. At the time, Madison said the standard of maladministration was “so vague a term will be equivalent to a tenure during pleasure of the Senate.”
Cruz summarized Madison’s opinion in the podcast by saying, “What it would mean is you would have a president be impeached any time the Senate disagrees with him. Any time there’s a disagreement on policy or politics, they’d be impeached.”
He and Knowles also discussed the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, the motions filed on the first day of arguments, and the progress made thus far in Trump’s impeachment. The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
