Please, Sen. Crapo. Do the right thing. Call for witnesses in the impeachment trial
Idaho has an opportunity to play an important role in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
Namely, Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo can join the growing call for witnesses in the trial, particularly following revelations over the weekend that former national security adviser John Bolton alleges in an unreleased memoir that President Donald Trump told Bolton he was withholding military aid to Ukraine to force its government to announce an investigation into a political rival.
Crapo, 68, of Idaho Falls, is Idaho’s senior senator, first elected in 1998. He ranks 15th overall in seniority in Congress. He doesn’t face re-election until 2022, if he chooses to run again. Regardless, Crapo has easily retained his seat in past elections. He was re-elected in 2004 with 99.2% of the vote, in November 2010 with 71% of the vote, and in November 2016 with 66% of the vote.
Like his colleague, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who is doing the right thing and calling for witnesses in the impeachment trial, Crapo seems to be well-regarded and respected on both sides of the aisle. He is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and is on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
While fellow Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch was caught dozing on the opening day of the impeachment trial, Crapo was derided for reading a book. However, Crapo wasn’t reading the latest Danielle Steele novel. He was caught reading “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump” by Frank O. Bowman III, a scholarly and well-regarded book on impeachment.
It appears to us that Risch is not interested in following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Sens. William Borah and Frank Church, leaders in the Senate who on occasion stood up to their own party in the interests of the nation, but perhaps Crapo will have the fortitude to do what’s right. Crapo has an opportunity to vote to clarify whether the case before them rises to the level of removing Trump from office.
The president’s defense team has presented an odd mix of defenses, contending at varying times that the president didn’t do it, that he said it but it didn’t lead to anything, and that he did it but should not have been impeached for it.
Hearing from witnesses, specifically Bolton, could shed light on the motivations of the president in his phone call with the Ukrainian president in which he asked “a favor” — to have Ukraine launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden — and tied it to U.S aid.
One of the conflicting points of argument is whether the request for an investigation was a legitimate concern of the president of the United States in the protection of U.S. interests and taxpayer dollars, or simply an attempt to malign a political rival.
It would appear that Bolton is in a position to clear up that point.
We do find it curious that the president’s lawyers do not want to call witnesses. If Bolton were to testify that President Trump was counseled to request an investigation out of national security interests, that would go a long way in making the defense’s case.
We also keep hearing about this trial in terms of Democrats and Republicans. But trials aren’t supposed to be partisan; impartial jurors should evaluate all the information available to them and make a decision that is best for the country, regardless of what they are getting peer-pressured into.
There were witnesses in the two other presidential impeachment trials, of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. In the pure interest of instilling confidence in the impeachment process as a mechanism to get to the truth, calling witnesses is a reasonable step.
Being a reasonable senator, Sen. Crapo has an opportunity to play a crucial role in our nation’s history.
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 2:27 PM.