Casey concerned that president’s behavior could worsen unless he is convicted, removed
If President Trump is not convicted in the impeachment trial unfolding in the U.S. Senate and then removed from office, Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is concerned that Trump will be emboldened and commit further misdeeds.
“I have great fears,” Casey said in a conference call Thursday morning with newspaper and radio reporters across the commonwealth. “A lot of questions arise about what would happen if he were not to be removed. This isn’t a blank record that’s being filled in by the day. We know a lot about how this president conducts himself. We know a lot about his lack of credibility. The idea that he became so obsessed with one of his opponents that he was willing to rope in a foreign leader is really disturbing.”
Casey is one of 100 U.S. senators who will be deciding the president’s fate once the trial wraps up. Over the last few days, Democrats from the U.S. House have been laying out the case against Trump, arguing that his attempt to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it announced it was launching investigations into the 2016 election interference and Joe Biden, the former vice president. Trump’s lawyers and Republican defenders are expected to argue that the president’s actions don’t merit booting him from office.
Casey, a Democrat, said he has not talked about the trial with his fellow Pennsylvania senator, Republican Pat Toomey, but anticipated senators would get a sense of what their colleagues are thinking after the trial concludes. At the start of trial, Toomey’s office released a statement in which he said he took his role in the process “very seriously.”
“The Senate should conduct a fair trial consistent with past precedent,” Toomey said. “We will allow House managers to make their case, the president’s lawyers to make their defense, and senators to pose questions. At the conclusion of these presentations, the Senate can then decide what, if any, further steps are necessary.”
The conventional wisdom has it that supporters of Trump’s conviction and removal will not be able to muster the 67 votes necessary for that to happen thanks to solid Republican opposition, and Casey declined to say whether he believed getting one or two votes over 50 would at least represent a symbolic victory for Democrats.
“I don’t want to speculate about the outcome,” he explained. “I do think it would be a substantial measure of progress if Senate Republicans said we want to hear from witnesses and see documents.”
In the course of the discussion, Casey repeatedly came back to the idea that witnesses should be heard in the trial, and documents should be brought into evidence. “I want the Republicans to be continually challenged by the evidence, and I think they have been. Let the evidence do the talking.”
The senator also acknowledged that many of his constituents are paying little or no attention to the trial, despite its historic nature. Trump is only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached and then tried in the Senate.
“Most people don’t have a job that allows them to sit in front of a TV and watch a trial for three or four hours at a time, or even two hours at a time or even one hour,” Casey said. “I don’t begrudge anyone doing their job and trying to catch up later.”