Democratic Candidates Ask Revealing Questions at Senate Trial

(Bloomberg) -- Presidential candidates are used to answering questions. It’s not often they get to pose them.

But as the Senate trial of President Donald Trump comes to a close, the senators running for the 2020 Democratic nomination put questions of the lawyers on both sides by submitting them in writing to be read aloud to the chamber by Chief Justice John Roberts. What they asked was revealing.

Ever the Harvard professor, Elizabeth Warren posed a tough hypothetical: “If Ukrainian President Zelensky called President Trump and offered dirt on Trump’s rivals in exchange for hundreds of millions in military aid, that would clearly be bribery and an impeachable offense. Why would it be acceptable, and not be impeachable for the reverse, that is for President Trump to propose the same corrupt bargain?”

Reflecting her past as a prosecutor, Amy Klobuchar asked a procedural question: “I was on the trial committee for the last impeachment trial in the Senate - Judge Porteus. During that time, we heard from 26 witnesses, 17 of whom had not testified in the House. What possible reason could there be for allowing 26 witnesses in a judge’s trial and none in a president’s trial?”

And true to form as a populist firebrand, Bernie Sanders went for the jugular: “Gordon Sondland testified that President Trump told him ‘No quid pro quo.’ Why should anything Trump says have credibility, given his lies?”

(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News).

This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Teague Beckwith in Des Moines at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Magan Crane

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