Starr says impeachment is ‘hell’
Says country is too quick to use measure
WASHINGTON — Impeachment, Ken Starr said, kicking off President Trump’s defense, “is hell.” A measure of “last resort.” A bad habit to be kicked.
Starr, with a nod to his own role in the impeachment of Bill Clinton and citing “America’s constitutional DNA,” argued that it’s time to bring an end to “the age of impeachment.”
Starr mentioned the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal and the Clinton impeachment in a presentation that suggested that impeachment has become weaponized.
“In this particular juncture in America’s history, the Senate is being called to sit as the high court of impeachment all too frequently,” Starr said.
“Indeed, we are living in what I think can aptly be described as the age of impeachment. … How did we get here?”
Starr, a former solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush, is most famous for his time as the independent counsel who led an investigation of Clinton that started as probe of an Arkansas land deal and evolved into an examination of his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
“Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment — including members of this body — full well understand that a presidential impeachment is tantamount to domestic war, albeit thankfully protected by our beloved First Amendment,” Starr said
Monday. “(It is) a war of words and a war of ideas, but it is filled with acrimony and divides the country like nothing else. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment understand that in a deep and personal way.”
Meanwhile, the newest member of the U.S. Senate took a swipe at Sen. Mitt Romney after he said it is “increasingly likely” that other Republicans will join a call to compel former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler tweeted Monday that Romney wants to “appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander” Trump.
The Georgia lawmaker was sworn in on Jan. 6 after being appointed by the state’s Republican governor. Her tweet came hours after Romney said Bolton “has relevant testimony” and it is “increasingly apparent it is important to hear” from him.
Bolton wrote in his forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid from Ukraine until it helped him with investigations into his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Loeffler said: “The circus is over. It’s time to move on!”