Welcome to the Swamp

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A tale of chasing senators, hydration tablets and meeting humans who represent us

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  • Welcome to the Swamp
    Welcome to the Swamp
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The main headline to this story came via a text from a Washington insider early in my 72-hour mad dash to the nation’s capitol.

What follows is a rough outline of what I saw and heard in the center of the American political universe from Jan. 23 to Jan. 25.

Although they say New York City is the city that never sleeps, the District of Columbia and its occupants may rival that. My first stop or set of stops after dropping my luggage off

My first stop or set of stops after dropping my luggage off at my hotel was straight to the northern side of Capitol Hill the three office buildings that house the 100 United States Senators and their staffs. I basically lived in these buildings (Dirksen, Hart and Russell) for most of my time in town.

I made the rounds in either in person, phone and e-mail that first night to reach out to the eight senators I was assigned to cover.

They are grouped as follows by state:

Oklahoma:

• Jim Inhofe, Russell 205

• James Lankford, Hart 316

Texas:

• John Cornyn, Hart 517

• Ted Cruz, Russell 127A

Kansas:

• Pat Roberts, Russell 205

• Jerry Moran, Dirksen 521

New Mexico:

• Tom Udall, Hart 531

• Martin Heinrich, Hart 303

As shared last time, I had in-person interviews with both of Oklahoma’s senators, Inhofe and Lankford.

A media conference call with Senator Cornyn of Texas set for the morning of Jan. 25 was canceled and tentatively rescheduled for later this week.

Other senators such as Cruz, Roberts, Udall and Heinrich were not able to schedule in-person or phone interviews. However, Heinrich’s office made arrangements to have the senator answer some questions via email for future publication.

The U.S. Senate schedule has stayed the same since last week when rules were passed. Basically, the Senate gavels in at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time each afternoon. As there is no technical end time, the senate would go as late as 1 a.m. EST earlier in the week.

During my time there, the House Managers (members of the House of Representatives Democratic Caucus) presented the two Articles of Impeachment against President Donald John Trump.

In an impeachment trial, the House Managers serve as prosecutors while the White House Counsel serves as the President’s defacto defense attorneys and the senators serve as both the judge and jury who decide whether or not to convict the President.

The first interview was with Sen. Lankford midmorning Jan. 24 at his office. Also in the room was Aly Beley, Lankford’s communications director.

Lankford spoke about the long days the senate face and his take on the process.

“So when we started the process and the House was going to impeach the President, there was obviously a lot of consternation on this side because of how the House handled the process,” Lankford said. “It was exceptionally fast. They didn’t do a lot of interviews. They didn’t do a lot of background work. So there was this pause to say, ‘how did they do it in the Clinton trial. Let’s try to keep it as consistent as we can because it’s going to be really contentious.”

Lankford said these discussions about the process began as far back as December 2019 in the Republican Senate Conference meetings.

“There was the whole conversation about just dismiss it outright,” he said. “So what we did in the final rules is we kept it as close as we could to the Clinton rules with the exception of the Clinton rules had a dismissal. We took that out. Other than that it’s almost identical to that.”

Lankford explained that each side received 24 hours to present their case followed by 16 hours of questions. Then he talked through future portions of the process.

“Then, you have a vote if you want additional evidence, additional materials, something else we might need,” he said. “Right there is a dismissal vote that is taken out. We’ve gotta actually come to a decision on this.”

Lankford felt confident the Senate schedule and process were sufficient for the trial. However, he added that he felt the House of Representatives and specifically, House Democrats, who hold a majority of seats in that body moved too quickly which their portion of the process.

“Again, the Clinton trial had 90,000 pages,” he said. “There’s a lot of information. This time the House is sending it over with significantly less information because they did significantly less work to actually prepare it. They were on the rocket docket to be able to move this through.”

In all, I sat with Lankford and for about 19 minutes. I’ll share more from that interview in some future articles. Frankly, there was a lot to unpack and I’d like to dive into it with you, our readers.

My interview with Senator Inhofe was schedule for the following morning, Jan. 25.

In between my interviews, I got to sit through a couple of hours of the trial.

What I saw was what folks saw on TV and more. The TV cameras are set so folks at home can only see whomever is talking.

During the trial, the only folks who take notes are Senators, any staff members on the floor or members of the Congressional Press Corps. As I was technically a visiting correspondent on behalf of Wesner Publications, I was not allowed to take notes in the time I was there.

I did see someone try to take notes in the gallery and they were told to stop, which they did. The passes provided by the offices of both Senators Inhofe and Lankford allowed me to use a line designated for Senate Staff and for lack of a better word, VIPs.

Ahead of the Thursday, Jan. 24 session starting, I spoke to numerous people in the public gallery line. Some of them lined up as early as 9 a.m. EST or four hours ahead of the 1 p.m. EST opening.

Some folks were locals to DC, Virginia or Maryland but many were visiting the area either on prescheduled trips (such as the Jan. 25 March for Life) or simply to see the trial itself and witness history.

I met a group of 90 students and teachers from a high school in Kansas, a group of East Central University students and their professor and a couple from California with their child in a stroller.

Sitting in the trial was a bit of a tedious affair as Senators are required to listen to others speak without being allowed to talk or ask questions themselves.

Although Inhofe did speak at length about the impeachment during our interview, it was the human context that he shared that caught my ear.

Early in our conversation he shared a story of bipartisan friendship where Senator Kristen Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona gave a pill to help keep him awake.

“She gave me this pill that when it dissolved it turned pink,” he said. “I thought I’d be in trouble.”

The trouble Inhofe was referring to was the Senate rules that water and milk are the only drinks allowed on the Senate floor.

John Lombard from Senator Sinema’s office confirmed a it was Nuun electrolyte tablet with caffeine.

Inhofe also shared insights into how he views house managers and other senators.

“I know these people,” he said. “I know Jerry Nadler [a Congressman from New York who is one of the House Managers.”

Inhofe also talked about one of his best friends in the senate, Bernie Sanders.

“In fact the leader is a registered socialist. i respect him because he’s not a hypocrite. He says what he is.”