USA: PRESIDENT CLINTON IMPEACHMENT TRIAL (2)

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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English/Nat The U-S Senate is deliberating behind closed doors on whether President Bill Clinton should be convicted and removed from office. Senators voted to hold their session in private on Tuesday. Fifty-nine senators, both Republicans and Democrats, voted to conduct the deliberations in front of television cameras, but 67 votes were needed. The impeachment trial of President Clinton continues, seemingly on course to end this week. After listening quietly for weeks to testimony and arguments, trial-weary senators went into the chamber to decide whether or not their doors would be open during deliberations. Though a simple majority of Republicans and Democrats were in favour of deliberating in front of the cameras, it wasn't enough. The body fell eight votes short of the required two-thirds majority needed to change the rules and open the doors. SOUNDBITE: (English) "On this vote the yeas are 59, the nays are 41. Two-thirds of those senators voting, a quorum being present not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to." SUPER CAPTION: William Rehnquist, Chief Justice The Senate majority leader offered a compromise to those wanting a window to the public. On a voice vote, senators approved Trent Lott's idea to allow senators to make statements during deliberations public, after the trial. But Democrat Paul Wellstone said that statements issued in the Congressional record could not be compared to watching deliberations live. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I think that the motion that passed that would enable any senator that wants to make public his or her statement in final deliberations - and I think before it's all over, my guess is, really throughout all of the closed deliberations - represents a great leap sideways, not a step forward. I mean, it's a very poor substitute." SUPER CAPTION: Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat, Minnesota Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison said she was disappointed, but hoped the rules can be changed in the future. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I believe the rule clearly gives the Senate the option of leaving the doors open and then preceding into open deliberations. But the precedent for 130 years is otherwise, and he (Rehnquist) chose to stay with the precedent. I hope that in the future another chief justice will look at this rule and determine that the Senate will be able to have the option to close or open the doors by a majority vote." SUPER CAPTION: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican, Texas Senators rejected a request from House prosecutors to call more witnesses. Senator Arlen Specter asked senators to resolve a question over whether White House aide Sidney Blumenthal gave truthful testimony during the impeachment trial. In his testimony, Blumenthal said he never passed on to reporters derogatory information he had received from Clinton in a private conversations that Monica Lewinsky was a "stalker". Two journalists have filed affidavits challenging that assertion. Even as deliberations got under way, senator were struggling to draft a strong censure resolution condemning the president's behaviour. A censure resolution would come after the senators vote on the impeachment articles. That is expected Thursday or Friday and the outcome has been virtually conceded at the start. No senator believes that the Senate will vote to convict President Clinton and remove him from office. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d2b00183156839de753fd79cf1420e05 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork