Trump lawyers wrap up their arguments as senators ponder calling witnesses.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday she still hasn’t decided if she will vote to convict President Trump, but she’s closer than she was before the Senate’s impeachment trial began.
“I was going to vote against it,” the California Democrat told reporters after attorneys for the president finished three days of arguments against impeachment. She said her feeling was that with less than 10 months to go before November’s presidential election, “the people should judge. That’s my view and it still is my view.”
But her feelings on impeachment have changed, Feinstein said in response to a question by Alayna Treene of Axios, who tweeted a transcript of her interview.
“Impeachment isn’t about one offense,” the senator said in the interview. “It’s really about the character and ability and physical and mental fitness of the individual to serve the people, not themselves.”
But Feinstein, who said before the impeachment trial began last week that she was “prepared to listen to the evidence and decide on the articles of impeachment based on the merits,” still isn’t ready to commit to ousting Trump.
“I’m in the process” of deciding, Feinstein said in the interview, noting that the trial isn’t finished.
Feinstein’s comments on impeachment, which Treene said in a tweet were “a very confusing back and forth,” prompted the senator to clarify her comments after media reports went up saying that she was leaning toward acquitting Trump.
“Before the trial I said I’d keep an open mind,” Feinstein said in a tweet Tuesday afternoon. “Now that both sides made their cases, it’s clear the president’s actions were wrong. He withheld vital foreign assistance for personal political gain. That can’t be allowed to stand.”
Feinstein has never been an outfront supporter of impeachment and has declined to give a hint of how she will vote, saying only that “the Constitution and the people of America expect and deserve an impartial but informed jury.”
That’s a contrast to many of her colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, who have been willing and often eager to say how they will vote.
Feinstein also complained when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DSan Francisco, waited for weeks before sending the impeachment articles to the Senate, saying, “If it’s serious and important, send them over. If it isn’t, don’t send it over.”
She later backed away from that comment, saying Pelosi had good reason to delay.
Feinstein is one of 27 senators who also voted in 1999 on the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, which she has called a sobering experience. Since Trump’s trial is only the third presidential impeachment ever, “the weight of history falls heavily on these decisions,” Feinstein said.
While she voted to acquit Clinton, she led the effort to censure him, saying the president’s conduct in having an affair with a White House intern and lying about it had been “immoral, deplorable and indefensible.” The censure effort failed.
Trump is accused of abusing the power of his office by withholding military aid to Ukraine and leaning on Kyiv to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and a discredited theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 presidential election. A second impeachment count accuses Trump of obstructing Congress’ investigation.
Feinstein and other senators will have an opportunity Wednesday and Thursday to question Trump’s lawyers and the House impeachment managers. Their questions will be read by Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the impeachment trial.