The answer from Tom Cotton to my email about witnesses and documents

[Arkansas Granny]

at the Senate trial.

Thank you for contacting me about the impeachment trial of President Trump. It is good to hear from you, as always.

On July 25, 2019, President Trump spoke over the phone with Ukraine’s newly-elected President, Volodymyr Zelensky. After the call, someone within the intelligence community who was not on the call filed a whistleblower complaint against the president. According to reports, the whistleblower coordinated with the staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman, Adam Schiff, staff before filing the complaint. After the whistleblower complaint was filed, Democratic Party leaders in the House of Representatives used it to justify opening an impeachment inquiry.

Despite an unprecedented act of transparency by President Trump in releasing the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian leader, the Democratic Party nevertheless plunged headlong into a rushed and partisan impeachment process, the conclusion of which seemed predetermined from the start. They ignored precedent, gave no due process rights to President Trump to defend himself against the accusations, and refused to provide Republicans in Congress with the authority to call their own witnesses. The Democratic Party claimed it was necessary to rush the impeachment because it was an “urgent” matter, yet then they chose not to even send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate for trial for four long weeks.

The House Democrats then sought to plunge the Senate into a months-long fishing expedition by asking it to finish the House’s work for it and subpoena witnesses that the House never bothered to pursue. It is clear that that the impeachment effort against President Trump has been nothing more than a political exercise by the Democrats in the House, with no regard for truth and with the obvious purpose of leaving a cloud hanging over President Trump while distracting from our work on behalf of the American people. It is a shame that the Democratic Party chose not to dedicate even a fraction of this legislative energy to improving the lives of hardworking Americans instead.

I’m honored to serve as your senator. You, your family, and our state will remain on my mind and close to my heart in my work. Always feel free to call my office at [phone] or visit www.cotton.senate.gov . Be sure to drop by my office and say hello if you ever visit our nation’s capital.

Sincerely,

Tom Cotton
United States Senator

[Ohiogal]

1. What a huge pile of horse shit!

Cotton is a disgrace.

Not to be picking on Arkansas .... we have Rob Portman as our very own disgrace here in Ohio....

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I'd like to know more about that important work the Senate has been doing.

Last I heard, over 400 House bills were languishing in the Senate because McConnell won't bring them to the floor.

[Hoyt]

2. Yep. That's the kind of crud I'm seeing from white wingers too. Deplorable.

[bdamomma]

3. what work for

the American people??? Senator. Give me a break while the House has a mountain of bills on the desk of Moscow Mitch! And he's not doing a effing thing for the American people, he's just changing rules and doing Putin's work.

[kentuck]

4. No. They did not want the Senate to do their job for them.

They wanted the Senate to do its job. Try the impeachment from the House.

[crickets]

17. This is the essence of it. How dare the House expect Senators to do their jobs!

[mountain grammy]

6. I got the same shit from Cory Gardner

Good riddance to him soon enough.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. Unfortunately, Cotton is running unopposed this year.

[mountain grammy]

10. That's maddening!

But it’s Arkansas. Sad 😞

[dchill]

7. "...with no regard for truth...

Sincerely,

Tom Cotton
United States Senator"

(Edited for relevance.)

[gratuitous]

9. Dear Sen. Cotton

Thank you for your response to my inquiry. Unfortunately, it appears you have several facts quite in error, which you should correct. As you should know, the whistleblower is required by law to report first to the National Security Agency and to the chairs of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Intelligence Committee. This is precisely the procedure the whistleblower followed, which can hardly be described as "coordinating" with anyone. Why neither the NSA or SSCI did anything with the whistleblower's report, a citizen can only speculate.

Second, the "transcript" of Trump's call that was released was not, by its own terms, a transcript. It was a memorandum of the call, and you should know that any actual transcript has been locked away by the President under the highest security classification. That is hardly transparent, and I highly doubt you would describe similar conduct by a political opponent as such.

Third, the months-long fishing expedition appears to have hooked any number of fish, the details of which have been corroborated by numerous witnesses, including Ambassador Yovanovitch and Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. Any disregard for the truth has been the sole province of the Senate, which has refused to consider any of the evidence brought forward by the House, and has refused to conduct an actual trial of those facts. As you should know, a trial is supposed to have a presentation of evidence and testimony, which the majority of the Senate - including you - have refused to call or consider. Your cursory dismissal of the evidence before you shows your efforts to be nothing more than a sham, a gross dereliction of your duty under the Constitution, and a violation of the oath you swore to render impartial justice.

Shame on you.

[spanone]

13. BRILLIANT⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧

[struggle4progress]

14. +

[pandr32]

15. Perfect!

[crickets]

18. **applause**

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Sending him a pocket copy of the US Constitution and two balls.

P.S. I got the exact same reply.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. Yes. Pretty much a canned reply.

[librechik]

16. Unprecedented transparency? NOT A TRANSCRIPT-

you cotton pickin liar!

[lark]

19. Cotton asshole, lying, pandering, Russian Repug destroyer of our country.

So, after all the lies, basically he part of the right wing destruction of our constitution = on the behalf of Russia and their tool drumpf & worldwide oligarchs.

[Mr. Ected]

20. Then they've lost the right to wage any war on Dems

For any reason whatsoever.

[Midnight Writer]

21. Cotton's response is straight off of talk radio.

[superpatriotman]

22. Don't argue with crazy

And don't try to fix stupid

[Arkansas Granny]

23. I don't try to argue, but since he supposedly represent me in the Senate, I do like to let him know,

from time to time, how I feel about matters.