More than two dozen House Republicans have urged Senate leaders to instruct five Democratic senators who are currently seeking their party’s 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to recuse themselves from any upcoming impeachment trial.
“Unless it benefitted their fundraising or propped up their campaign issues page, the Senate Democrats running for President have ignored their day job and their constituents,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) said in a announcing the resolution on behalf of 26 GOP members.
“Suddenly returning to Washington in pursuit of their ‘Spartacus moment’ is an embarrassment to our standards of judicial impartiality and a poor excuse for public service,” Walker continued.
“Every Senate Democrat who filed for President should recuse themselves from impeachment proceedings; they have devoted themselves to replacing Donald Trump at the ballot box and are incapable of rendering an impartial verdict in an impeachment trial,” he said.
The five Democrats still seeking the nomination are Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Michael Bennet of Colorado.
Sanders is officially an “Independent” but he caucuses with Democrats and is seeking that party’s nomination.
The resolution says recusal should be required because the five senators have “a vested interest in the reputation and political future of an incumbent President of the United States who is currently serving his or her first term in office.”
The resolution most likely will languish because Democrats control the lower chamber and aren’t likely to bring it up for a vote.
Senate rules require all senators to be present and in their seats on the Senate floor during the trial, which is expected to last four-to-six weeks. The senators are not allowed to speak while House impeachment managers and lawyers for Trump make presentations, The Epoch Times reported.
The five Democrats may actually be hoping to miss the trial so they can continue campaigning, the news site added.