Tester, Daines, opposed in impeachment vote

On the day before an almost-certain vote to acquit President Donald Trump on articles of impeachment, Montana's U.S. senators gave contradicting statements on the floor of the Senate on how and why they would vote.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Tuesday he would acquit, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he would convict.

Tester and Daines also split on party lines on votes to allow more witnesses during the Senate trial, Tester for and Daines against.

Trump was impeached on accusations that he abused his power by withholding aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia in exchange for its announcing investigations into his political rival Joe Biden, and that he obstructed Congress by withholding information during its investigation and the impeachment in the House. Democrats say the obstruction has continued during the trial in the Senate.

Daines said the impeachment is a partisan attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election that gave Trump the presidency and to prevent his winning in November.

"Sadly, over the course of our country's 244-year history, never has our nation faced such a partisan abuse of power," Daines said. "Never has the Senate been faced with articles of impeachment that allege no crimes, in the attempt to remove a duly-elected president of the United States from office. Never before have we seen such a partisan presidential impeachment process."

He noted that in 1974 when President Richard Nixon - who resigned before he was impeached - and during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, the proceedings had bipartisan support.

"But with President Trump, there were zero. Not one Republican supported it," Daines said."In fact, some Democrats opposed it. To be clear, there was bipartisan opposition.

"This impeachment is an unprecedented, purely partisan threat to the Constitution," he said.

He said the writers of the U.S. Constitution long debated whether impeachment should be included, and set it so it took a super-majority - two-thirds of the Senate - to convict.

"The Founders established that this thermonuclear option of impeachment must be bipartisan to safeguard not just the president from unwarranted removal - but to protect the will of the American people who elected the president in the first place," Daines said. "Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and House Democrats have done exactly what the Founding Fathers feared."

He said the Democrats have ignored the lessons of history.

"The Democrat's decision was a mistake that has only further divided our nation during a time we should be working together," Daines said. "It was wrong. And it has damaged our country.

"We should now fear for future dresidents, Democrats or Republicans, who will hold the oath of office in this newly hyper-partisan era," he said.

He said Democrats have been saying they would impeach Trump from the moment he was elected, but Montanans overwhelmingly voted to elect Trump and impeachment would ignore their voices and the voices of Montanans who support Trump in the upcoming election.

"Our Founding Fathers would be grieved by the careless use of the most powerful tool against the presidency," he said. "Impeachment is not a tool to overturn the results of a past election. It is not a tool to change the outcome of an upcoming election.

" ... Montanans elected me to represent them in the U.S. Senate, to be their voice in Washington, D.C., "he continued. "Montanans overwhelmingly oppose this impeachment. Montanans stand with President Trump."

President Trump won Montana by over 20 points in the 2016 election.

"Supporting this impeachment means ignoring the voices of Montanans who voted for President Trump in the last election," Daines said. "And it means silencing Montanans who plan to vote for President Trump in the 2020 election.

"Never before has the U.S. Senate removed a president from office," he said. "And it's not going to happen now."

But Tester said the facts are clear: Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress.

"Montanans sent me to the U.S. Senate to hold government accountable," he said. "I fought to allow this trial to include documents and testimony from witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the allegations against the president - regardless of whether they were incriminating or exculpatory - so the Senate could make its decision based on the best information available. Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues and the administration blocked this information - robbing the American people, the American people of their legitimate right to hold their elected officials accountable.

  "Based on the evidence that was available to me during this trial, I believe President Trump abused his power by withholding military aid from an ally for personal political gain, and that he obstructed legitimate oversight by a coequal branch of government. It is a sad day for this country, and for all Americans who believe that no one - not even the president of the United States-is above the law."

Tester said the House impeachment managers laid out a clear and compelling case against Trump.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the president obstructed our ability, the Senate of the United States, to do its job as a co-equal branch to make sure the executive branch is being honest and forthright," he said.

"The fact of the matter is there is little doubt that the president withheld aid to an ally for the purpose of creating a position of where they had to do an investigation if they were going to get that money - or at least announce an investigation, on a United States citizen who happened to be a political foe - to corrupt our next election. No doubt about that."

He added that many voting against impeachment have said president committed wrongdoing, but it was not an impeachable offense.

"If anybody in this country, especially the president of the United States, corrupts an election ... if thats not an impeachable offense for the president of the United States, I don't know what is," Tester said.

"... This is a no-brainer," Tester said. "He absolutely, unequivocably is guilty of both Article One and Article Two of the impeachment."

And, Tester said, the vote could impact the actions of future presidents and Trump from this point on.

"I am very concerned about where we go from here," he said. "... This will empower him to do anything he wants.

"And at some point in time, if we want to listen to what the framers said, at some point in time we're going to have to do our constitutional duty," Tester said. "It doesn't appear we're going to do it this time."