Proponents of expanding President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate seized upon a new poll result released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University.
That poll, conducted over the past week, determined that 75 percent of respondents support allowing witnesses to offer testimony as part of the Senate proceeding. That includes nearly all Democrats and most independents — as well as a plurality of Republicans.
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This is a question of salience right now, given the emergence of reporting suggesting that former national security adviser John Bolton may have information strongly bolstering the case against the president. Trump, unsurprisingly, would rather that Bolton not present testimony to the senators who are empowered to remove the president from office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is inclined to agree.
The implication of the poll for Trump’s opponents is clear: Americans want witnesses, so let Bolton in. That line of thought, though, misses two important points.
The first is that Congress has repeatedly shown a remarkable disinterest in responding to the majority will of the electorate when possible. Take the example of expanded background checks for gun sales: In the abstract, legislation to that end consistently has the support of a wide majority of the country. Often, though, possible legislative responses are simply set aside, allowing members of Congress to avoid having to weigh in against the will of the people. When legislation is introduced, specific proposals are often picked apart and attacked on the basis of particular elements of the legislation.
That, as it turns out, is probably a good analogy for the debate over impeachment trial witnesses. What a celebration of that 75 percent figure buries is that the witnesses sought by the 95 percent of Democrats who support the idea are almost certainly not the same witnesses supported by that plurality of Republicans.