Democratic senator says Trump has ‘get out of jail free card’ from Senate Republicans
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said Wednesday that President Donald Trump has a “get out of jail free card” from Senate Republicans and that the President learned from the impeachment trial “that he can do anything.”
“He learned that he could get away with corrupting his office with absolutely no consequences,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “Anderson Cooper 360” when asked about lessons Trump has learned from the trial.
“What he learned is he can do anything. He can use all of the tools that are at his disposal in the White House, at the State Department, at the Justice Department — in order to destroy his political rivals, in order to silence anyone who speaks out against him and to forgive, pardon or let off the hook his co-conspirators.”
He continued, “That’s the lesson that he has learned, and what I think we all worry is that we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. He essentially has a get out of jail free card from Republicans in the Senate.”
Murphy’s comments come a week after the President was acquitted in the trial and amid questions surrounding the Justice Department’s revised sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone.
When asked on Wednesday what he had learned from the impeachment saga, Trump said, “Democrats are crooked.”
“They got a lot of crooked things going. That they’re vicious. That they shouldn’t have brought impeachment,” he said.
The President also thanked the Justice Department for intervening in the Stone case.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said in a letter on Wednesday that Attorney General William Barr is expected to testify before the committee on March 31. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, on Wednesday also called for Barr to testify.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who’s running for president, called for Barr to be held to account in an even stronger way for the controversy around the Stone case.
Warren told Cooper that the House should begin impeachment proceedings against the attorney general.
“What Barr has done should mean that we are demanding a resignation. And if that guy won’t resign, then the House should start impeachment proceedings against him,” she said. “And the United States Congress right now should put a writer on an upcoming bill to say, ‘Hey, no funding of any investigations that Barr meddles into. No funding Barr to meddle into investigations of Donald Trump, Donald Trump’s family or any of Donald Trump’s cronies.’ Because look what we create otherwise.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who voted against convicting the President on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, said that “there haven’t been any strong indicators this week that he has” when asked on Wednesday if Trump had taken any lessons from the impeachment ordeal.
