Biden Says Will Not Testify In Senate Impeachment Hearing Against Trump

Former US Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would not voluntarily appear before the Senate to testify in the impeachment proceedings against incumbent President Donald Trump, a rebuke to the latter's demand that he testify

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2019) Former US Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would not voluntarily appear before the Senate to testify in the impeachment proceedings against incumbent President Donald Trump, a rebuke to the latter's demand that he testify.

The Democratic Party launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump over his phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he allegedly attempted to pressure Kiev to dig into Biden and his son Hunter for corruption-link misdeeds in exchange for military aid. The White House has consented to a Senate trial but demanded that Biden and other live witnesses be part of it.

"No, I am not going to let them take their eye off the ball. The president is the one who has committed impeachable crimes, and I am not going to let him divert from that," Biden said at a campaign event, when asked whether he would "appear voluntarily" if called by the Senate as a witness.

In the United States, hearings at the Senate are the next step of the impeachment inquiry after the House of Representatives introduces an impeachment resolution and votes for it by a simple majority.

Impeachable crimes under Article 2, Section 4 of the constitution include "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist papers would later clarify high crimes and misdemeanors as "those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust."

If two-thirds of senators vote to convict, the president is removed from office. It is at this stage that all previous impeachment cases ended, chiefly because votes were split along party lines. The Senate is presently dominated by the Republicans and none has spoken in favor of impeachment so far.