During an interview on his new show today, anchor Bill Hemmer apparently thought he’d pass off a bit of pro-Republican impeachment spin as non-partisan. Unfortunately for him, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) was having none of it.
During the discussion with Van Hollen, Hemmer brought up the possibility of 12 hour sessions for the Trump impeachment trial in the Senate. “How does that sit with you?” Hemmer asked.
Van Hollen emphasized the need for a fair trial and said “obviously McConnell is trying to rush this through, including in the middle of the night.” Van Hollen called that “worrisome” but said, “we will all do our duty under the Constitution.”
That's when Hemmer put forth his phony bothsides-ism.
HEMMER [interrupting]: I guess there’s another – there’s another way of looking at it. I don’t mean to interrupt your answer there. But if you’re Amy Klobuchar and you want to get back to Iowa, maybe it’s a good thing that the process goes quickly. Could you see or understand that perspective, sir?
VAN HOLLDEN: Yeah, with respect, I don’t think that’s Mitch McConnell’s motivation right now. But look, I think, again, the important thing is that we get all the relevant witnesses and documents and testimony and whatever the timeline is, we have to do our job. But it should be a fair trial. And fair trials, I think every American recognizes, requires getting to the truth and you can’t have a real fair trial without witnesses.
Hemmer interrupted again to ask “another question on the politics,” this time to ask how much “this could hurt” the Democratic presidential candidates.
You can see Hemmer’s phony non-partisanship on display below, from the January 20, 2020 Bill Hemmer Reports.
The one thing I’ll caution is I hear one person disgusted with Trump’s corruption after another say for impeachment, let the American people throw Trump out in November. These aren’t Republicans even though it’s a Cult of the Mango Man-Child talking point coming from the Fox News crowd to keep the scumbag in office.
The problem with that is, despite the polls, I can see Democrats getting their asses kicked in November if they don’t pick the right candidate despite 51% of Americans saying they want Trump impeached and removed. Even given Trump’s inability to expand his base beyond his poor polling indicating he’s slipping a bit nationally from 2016 he could win in the Electoral College again.
- Any concept of equal justice before the law
- Respect for a sworn declaration
- Congress as a co-equal branch of government
- The whole idea of an impartial jury
- All rights to check a president’s financial affairs
- 60 years of progress toward equal rights for all
If he’s still there in November, he will be carried out in a landslide, along with Republican control of the Senate for years to come. Then the MAGAs will be forever wondering whatever happened to any form of control over the Executive Branch.
Hemmer also tried to play up the notion of Doug Jones already giving some thoughts on which articles he’d support, and Van Hollen had to school him on the fact that the Senators are meant to simply evaluate the case and not pre-judge it. (Hemmer was obviously trying to trap Van Hollen into making a pre-judgment so he could then accuse Dems of hypocrisy for challenging McConnell’s already announced conclusions.)
And of course Hemmer brought up the upcoming caucuses and primaries. But it wasn’t just to somehow defend McConnell’s attempt to make the trial unlivable for everyone. Hemmer was also trying to scaremonger about the Dem Senators who are running this year for President. It’s the familiar meme of “You’re gonna lose Iowa and New Hampshire because you’re stuck in the Senate!” And Van Hollen accurately pushed back on that and once again schooled Hemmer.
I note that McConnell’s vicious new rules are intended not to make the trial go faster but rather to make the situation intolerable for everyone involved. By setting up 12 hour days (not counting breaks and not counting the obvious interruptions they will be facing), McConnell is wildly extending what had been 6 hour sessions in the Clinton trial, and working to make sure that the big conclusions are relegated to late night, when almost nobody would be watching. (The Dem team is now trying to reconfigure their presentation to front-load as much as they can for each day, as a result, with no notice or time to prepare). And McConnell is setting up any situation of witnesses to keep damaging material behind closed doors. This is NOT the way it was handled with the Clinton trial, and it indicates just how terrified McConnell is of the public actually hearing from someone like Bolton.
