Republicans say Trump conduct 'inappropriate,' but not impeachable

Some Senate Republicans downplayed impeachment charges against President Donald Trump on the Sunday morning talk show circuit, but conceded his conduct was "inappropriate" and imperfect, three days before the Senate trial is set to conclude.

The Senate trial has focused on whether Trump pressured the Ukrainian government into investigating former Vice President Joseph Biden, a front-runner in the Democratic nominating contest, by withholding military aid to Ukraine. On Friday, the Senate blocked Democrats' demands to call witnesses in the trial, and a vote to acquit Trump is likely to occur on Wednesday.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who voted against the call for more witnesses, explained his vote on NBC's "Meet the Press." He told anchor Chuck Todd: "Do I need more evidence to conclude that the president did what he did? And I concluded no."

"I think he shouldn't have done it. I think it was wrong. Inappropriate was the way I'd say. Improper. Crossing the line. And then the only question left is who decides what to do about it," Alexander said. He explained that "the people" are to decide that matter.

He expressed concern about removing a sitting president who is up for re-election in the fall. "It struck me really for the first time early last week that we're not just asking to remove the president from office. We're saying tell him he can't run in the 2020 election, which begins Monday in Iowa," Alexander said.

He added that what Trump did "is a long way from treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors." Alexander also said Americans must consider the following calculus: "Good economy, lower taxes, conservative judges, behavior that I might not like, call to Ukraine, weigh that against Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and pick a president."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of the House impeachment managers, said on CBS' "Face The Nation," that "to call solicitation, coercion, blackmail of a foreign power, an ally at war, by withholding military aid to get help in cheating the next election merely inappropriate, doesn't begin to do justice to the gravity of this president's misconduct."

Even if the Senate votes to acquit Trump, Schiff said: "I still think it's enormously important that the president was impeached, because the country is moving away from its democratic ideals, and I think by standing up to this president, as we have, by making the case to the American people, by exposing his wrongdoing, we are helping to slow the momentum away from our democratic values." 

National security adviser Robert O'Brien, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," addressed questions about his predecessor John Bolton, who has written a book that claims Trump tied nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine to his demand that Ukraine investigate Biden and son Hunter, according to reports of an unpublished manuscript.  

O'Brien said the National Security Council must ensure that "state secrets and important classified information that could jeopardize important American lives are not released." He said he was "very confident" that no one on the National Security Council leaked the Bolton manuscript.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), commenting on the call, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that "ferreting out corruption is absolutely the right thing to do. Now, if he was tying it to other things, that's the president. It's probably something that I wouldn't have done. But focusing on corruption, absolutely."

"The president has a lot of latitude to do what he wants to. Again not what I would have done," Ernst said, adding: "Maybe not the perfect call. Generally speaking ... he did it maybe in the wrong manner. I think he could've done in through different channels."

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump’s legal defense team, defended the vote by Senate Republicans last Friday to not introduce new witness testimony and documents into the Senate trial.

Dershowitz, who has long argued that the two articles of impeachment against Trump do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses, said it was “the right answer” to dismiss the request for additional witnesses and documents introduced by Senate Democrats.

“You can’t introduce evidence if there is no legitimate indictment here,” Dershowitz told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “So the right answer is to dismiss it and cut it off right there. No amount of witnesses could have changed the conclusion.”

Asked by Wallace whether he was troubled by Trump’s solicitation of a foreign investigation into a political rival, Dershowitz said “of course any citizen would find that troubling if it were proved,” but added that “troubling is not a criteria for impeachment.”

“If a president linked aid to an ally to personal benefit that was not in the public interest, that would be wrong, that would be a reason for me not to vote for him,” Dershowitz said.

With Laura Figueroa Hernandez

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.