Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Tuesday that he hopes the impeachment inquiry being led by House Democrats moves forward sooner rather than later amid Democratic concerns that the proceedings might not conclude before the 2020 elections.
In response to a question about the timeline of the impeachment inquiry, Warner said “the sooner the better.”
Warner, who serves as the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, added that he is eager to hear from impeachment witnesses himself if articles are passed in the House and the proceedings move forward in the Senate.
“The idea that we can ignore what continues to be an extraordinary troubling fact-pattern,” he said. “I don’t think under our Constitution we can do that.”
Warner said that he was particularly troubled by Republican attacks on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key impeachment witness, saying “that’s just not who we are as a country.”
Leading up to Vindman’s closed-door testimony on Tuesday, some of Trump’s allies questioned Vindman, who is a Ukrainian-American immigrant, over his patriotism, suggesting that he may have a greater sense of allegiance to Ukraine.
“I don’t hear them necessarily defending the phone call itself, but they seem to be grasping at all these extraneous items,” Warner said referring to Trump’s allies. “I wish we would just stick to the facts — let the facts be presented.”
But Warner cautioned lawmakers to take impeachment proceedings one step at a time, saying he believes Democrats’ decision to open up impeachment proceedings to the public will help ease tensions between the parties.
“We all will take a deep breath and think that at the end of the day that we took an oath to defend the Constitution,” he said. “There’s virtually nothing more serious than an impeachment proceeding and I hope both sides will come in with an open mind.”
House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a new House resolution on impeachment procedures, which includes an outline for how upcoming public hearings will be conducted.
The House is expected to vote on the resolution Thursday.
—Tess Bonn
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