Portraying the removal drive against President Trump as “purely partisan,” Sen. Rand Paul believes more Democrats will oppose impeachment in the House vote next week, and at least two Democratic senators may vote against conviction.
“I think in the end it’s going to be party line in the House. I think that there are already two Democrats that voted against the impeachment inquiry, I think there might be a handful more,” Paul said at a Young Americas Foundation event this week.
“I think it’s still probably going to pass,” he added.
Turning to the Senate, the Kentucky Republican said, “Right now I think every Republican votes against impeachment and I think that there’s a possibility of two Democrats voting against impeachment.”
He did not name the Democrats, but reports have pointed to West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema.
Paul also said that he would try to limit the Senate trial. “I’m going to do everything I can to make it short,” he said.
Paul and his wife, Kelley Ashby Paul, were at a signing at YAF headquarters for his newly published book, The Case Against Socialism.
Paul said few people are paying attention to impeachment, which doesn’t even make the top story on network news.
But he did attack Democratic tactics, especially the seizure and release of private telephone records by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“I for one was more offended, probably, actually, by what Adam Schiff’s done than any of the accusations they have made [against] the president. The fact that Adam Schiff used his own signature, acting like a judge, to subpoena phone records and then publish the phone records of the president’s lawyers talking to each other, the president’s lawyers talking to reporters, the ranking member, another congressman’s phone records, to have published that and you’re not hearing a squeak of anything from the mainstream media, they just don’t seem to care at all,” he said.
“They’re saying the president abused his power for political purposes. I think that’s exactly what Schiff did, abused his power,” Paul said.
“This is something I’ve cared about even before this happened because we let government in general take a look at too many of our phone records. It should require a judge, it should require probable cause, and you should be accused of a crime, a real crime,” he said.
He added it could undermine the Democratic case for impeachment. “I hope that this further taints this proceeding,” he said.
