Abuse of Power

“While this is the conclusion of one particular process, this is also a moment where President Trump was, for one of the few times in his life, held accountable for his actions,” said Jesse Littlewood, vice president of campaigns at Common Cause and an organizer of the evening demonstration. Littlewood said having hundreds of people standing outside Congress moments after the impeachment vote will send a symbolic message to legislators about the disappointment many Americans feel.“This is our opportunity to say we’re not going to let Trump run roughshod over our democratic process, that even if the GOP gives [him] a pass, we’re not going to,” he said.

Americans deserved the truth, but they got a ham-handed coverup instead. The Republican majority in the United States Senate denied the American people the truth and violated their oaths of office in a fruitless attempt to sweep Donald Trump’s illegal acts under the rug. In a cowardly and disgraceful final act to their show trial, Senate Republicans – with the notable exception of Mitt Romney - buried their heads in the sand and voted to condone President Trump’s blatant abuse of the powers of the presidency. Make no mistake about it, this was nothing more than an attempted partisan coverup for the shameless and illegal conduct of Donald Trump.

Americans deserve the truth and they deserve to hear from witnesses in the impeachment trial. The Republican Senate majority has cynically ignored overwhelming public support for witness testimony. Nationwide, support for witnesses has risen as more and more details have come out about President Trump’s shameful and illegal conduct in withholding vital military aid to Ukraine in order to coerce our endangered ally into launching an unfounded investigation to smear Trump’s political rival Joe Biden. Recent polls from Monmouth and Quinnipiac found 75% of Americans want to hear from witnesses – including 49% of Republicans, 75% of independents and 95% of Democrats.

Today, Common Cause strongly urged the United States Senate to obey the will of the people and vote for the motion to allow future votes on witnesses and evidence in President Trump’s impeachment trial. In a letter to every Senator, Common Cause emphasized that the American people expect and deserve a fair impeachment trial – not a show trial to excuse the abuses of office which led to the impeachment of President Trump.

Americans expect and deserve to hear from witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment Trial. The latest revelations that former Trump national security advisor John Bolton can provide direct evidence to expose President Trump’s lies about withholding critical military aide to Ukraine hammer home the need for the Senate to call witnesses. These new details add to a growing mountain of evidence that the President withheld the aide for his personal political gain, lied about it, and had his entire administration stonewall in an attempt to cover it up.  

“It was horrible the way we blew up the limits on donations to national parties because it allows people to buy access and influence,” said Paul S. Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “Contrary to popular perception, the Democratic Party has long fought to loosen restrictions on money and politics, hand-in-hand with the Republicans. The public doesn’t think that because Democrats on the stump talk about campaign finance reform.”