“If you feel that you have no authority, then you can’t go on and say ‘well we have no authority but I guess I’ll go ahead and convict anyway,’ ” Hawley said. “I’d be surprised if many or any of those people change their minds on the underlying question of whether or not to oppose a penalty or not.”
Assuming every Democrat votes to find Trump “guilty,” they would still need 17 Republican senators to side with them in order to convict Trump, in what would amount to a historic first. On Tuesday, they got six to say the trial was constitutional.
The House impeachment managers, who will begin laying out their case against former President Trump
Senators on both sides of the aisle are anxious to get Trump’s second impeachment trial wrapped up in a week, and some even hope it can be finished over the weekend, but a decision to call witnesses could prolong it well into next week, when the Senate is scheduled to be on recess.
Democrats are eager to return to work on a coronavirus relief bill, which they hope to pass by March 14, when enhanced federal unemployment benefits are set to expire.
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While Democratic senators say they will work on a rescue package during the trial, the spectacle of reliving Trump’s actions before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will distract from those efforts.
“I regret that language and take responsibility for it,” Tanden, a frequent cable news guest over the past several years, said in a line she added to the prepared opening statement released to the media ahead of the hearing. “Over the last few years, it’s been part of my role to be an impassioned advocate. I understand, though, that the role of OMB director calls for bipartisan action, as well as a nonpartisan adherence to facts and evidence,” she said, referring to the Office of Management and Budget.
Tanden’s nomination to lead OMB in the fall was greeted with guffaws by Republicans who had been targeted by her barbs for years. A longtime adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
The latest appointees have already gotten to work at their respective agencies and in just a few days have begun carrying out Biden’s agenda.
Melissa Hoffer, who was named as the Biden EPA’s principal deputy general counsel, has asked lawyers at the Department of Justice to pause cases where Trump administration rollbacks are being challenged by environmental groups.
And a recent Interior Department order that temporarily halted new drilling permits on federal lands, a step toward the Biden campaign promise of ending new public lands leasing, is stirring up mixed reactions.
“It is a team that is exceptionally knowledgeable in the subject areas they are getting hired for. These folks are not going to need a lot of ramp up time,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities.