we speak with longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who says Democrats set themselves up for defeat by rushing proceedings and failing to call witnesses — including Trump himself. “The narrow approach of the articles of impeachment keep the Democrats from having a full hand,” says Nader. “They have like 10 arrows in their quiver, and they’re using one or two.”
RALPH NADER: Well, Amy, it’s important to know that they were operating as civil proceeding attorneys. This is not a criminal proceeding; it’s a civil proceeding controlled completely by the U.S. Senate. The Supreme Court ruled in
Nixon v. the U.S.years ago that the judiciary has no role whatsoever. There’s no appeal. There’s no protracted delays. It’s all up to the Senate, and the Senate rules, number one.
Number two, the purpose of this impeachment effort is prophylactic. It’s designed not just to hold Trump accountable under the Constitution, but to prevent future wannabe Trumps from behaving in the same way. And therefore, the only, really, result of a guilty verdict would be disqualifying Trump from running for federal office anymore.
So, with that background, I think people need to know that the House managers were being managed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was running the show. And she has two approaches, which she used in the first impeachment. One is she likes to rush the trial. The second is, the reason why she likes to rush the trial, without witnesses and subpoenas, is that she has prejudged the result. She basically says, “These Republicans are intransigent. They’ll never change their mind. Our duty is to impeach in the House and send it over to the Senate.” Now, that is a prescription for defeat, period. And as a result, the narrow approach of the articles of impeachment keep the Democrats from having a full hand. They have like 10 arrows in their quiver, and they’re using one or two.
Now, what they should do is call witnesses. The witnesses they should call are not surprising: Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, some of the families of the victims, Garrett Miller or others who said they went down to the Congress on orders of their commander-in-chief who spoke to them, and John Bolton, who said that obstruction of justice was a way of life in the White House. He was the national security adviser, before he resigned.
Otherwise, what the Republicans will do is simply say, “This is a video show trial. A lot of the material was taken out of context. And the protagonists were entirely Democratic partisans, members of the House Democratic Party.” If you have witnesses, you have the potential of breakthrough testimony. Mike Pence, for example, Jay Rosen, for example, Brad Raffensperger, they might be required to testify about far deeper crimes than simply a telephone call to the Justice Department by Trump or to the Georgia secretary of state, twisting their elbows to try to change the course or the count of the election.
That’s the unfortunate aspect of it, Amy, that they had an opportunity.