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Daschle says Senate will probably call witnesses
Updated January 18, 1999
2:00 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conceding witnesses "may be inevitable," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle signaled today that if Senate Republicans choose to have live testimony at President Clinton's impeachment trial Democrats might object to placing limits on who can be summoned.
"Who are we to tell either the House or the White House how
they're going to run their case?" Daschle asked in an interview with
The Associated Press.
Daschle said he continues to believe witnesses are unnecessary but
acknowledged the political momentum was moving toward
having some witnesses.
"We do have the right to say no witnesses; the Supreme Court says
that every day. But once we say we have to have witnesses, then it
seems to me we've given up the ability to tell the House or White
House how to present their case," he said.
White House lawyers were busy today putting the final touches on their opening arguments, set to begin when the trial resumes Tuesday. The presentation is to take three days, after which senators will have 16 hours over two days to ask questions of both sides through Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
House prosecutors wrapped up their opening arguments over the
weekend, asserting that Clinton should be removed from office for perjury and obstruction of justice because he had "violated the
public trust."
Senate officials said Majority Leader Trent Lott and Daschle have agreed on the format for the questioning by the senators. The 16 hours will be equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, but will
switch back and forth between the two sides every two hours.
Democrats continue to press for censure, insisting the 67 votes don't exist in the Senate to remove Clinton from office.
One of the House members
prosecuting the case, Rep. Asa
Hutchinson, R-Ark., defended
the decision not to call witnesses
before the House impeached Clinton
but said the Senate has a different
role.
"If the president wanted to
call witnesses in the Senate,
certainly he would be permitted to
do so, and the House (prosecutors)
should have that prerogative as
well," he said on NBC's `"Today."
Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo,
also on NBC, said the Senate should
have no qualms about consulting
public opinion polls when
considering Clinton's fate — just as
it would if it were passing a tax bill.
"That's why the founding fathers
selected the politicians and not the
Supreme Court" to try impeachment
charges against a president, Cuomo
said.
Most polls show strong support for
keeping Clinton in office.
Clinton's lawyers open their defense Tuesday and will insist that the allegations against the president aren't supported by the facts and don't warrant nullifying a national election, White House spokesman Jim
Kennedy said Sunday.
"We will also point out the
significant holes in the presentation
by the House of Representatives
managers as well as their
misleading and overreaching
characterizations of the evidence
and testimony," he added.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, expressing an apparent
consensus among
Republicans, told NBC's
"Meet the Press" that
it would be "pretty
tough under these
circumstances not to
have witnesses."
Republicans control the
Senate, 55-45, and
only a simple majority
vote is required to call
individual witnesses.
Democrats warned that the trial could be
stretched interminably if both sides began
calling witnesses, and said they
would contribute to that process by
seeking testimony from such people
as Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr and informant Linda Tripp.
"If I'm any reader of the tea
leaves in this situation, front and
center is going to be Kenneth
Starr," Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.,
said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"We will go through prosecutorial
abuse, how he came by information,
who he talked to and we're going to
put the system of justice on trial."
—Jim Abrams
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