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GOP senator: 'Huge mistake' to restrict press access during impeachment trial
The Hill ^ | January 15, 2020 | Jordain Carney

Posted on 01/15/2020 12:45:40 PM PST by jazusamo

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) distanced himself on Wednesday from proposed restrictions on reporters covering the upcoming Senate impeachment trial, calling it a "huge mistake."

"There is an effort to limit the press. ... I'm going to vote against that, if I'm allowed to vote," Kennedy told reporters. "U.S. senators are grown women and grown men. If they don't want to make a comment, they know how to say 'no comment.'"

The Standing Committee of Correspondents said on Tuesday that the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and the Senate Rules Committee are preparing to force new restrictions on press in the Capitol during the trial, including restricting the ability for reporters to talk to senators, something that is normally routine around Capitol Hill.

The committee said they had tried to work with the Rules panel and the sergeant-at-arms, but every suggestion they made was rejected “without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee and a 2020 presidential candidate, said on Tuesday night that she opposes the restrictions and has made her concerns known to Rules Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). "No, I don't support it, and I have been in contact with both sides on this issue," she said. "I made it very clear, I talked to Sen. Blunt about this, I think we should have open access for the press."

The Senate isn't expected to hold a formal vote on the press restrictions as part of its process for establishing the impeachment rules. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) did note, however, that Republicans discussed it during a closed-door caucus lunch on Tuesday.

Kennedy added on Wednesday that he does not "support" the proposed restrictions.

"If the media is limited to a specific geographical area so people can avoid them, we're not children. We're grown men and grown women. ...I just think that sends the wrong message," he said.

One of the proposed restrictions would require reporters to stand in press pens on the second floor of the Senate. Reporters would not be allowed to leave the pens to talk to senators.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: impeachment; johnkennedy; presidenttrump; pressrestrictions; senkennedy; trump; trumptrial; ussenate
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To: All

Idiot, a MSM circus is exactly what the rats want. The Clinton rules period.


21 posted on 01/15/2020 1:09:03 PM PST by gibsonguy
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To: usurper

“Surround the pens with alligators and electrified barbed wire and you get my vote. “

I say put the alligators inside the pens!


22 posted on 01/15/2020 1:09:26 PM PST by Swirl
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To: jazusamo

What the hell is wrong with just having a CSPAN broadcast? Thats all they do for everything else.


23 posted on 01/15/2020 1:09:41 PM PST by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them.)
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To: bigbob

“Kennedy is a damn smart guy with good common sense. I’m with him.”

I agree


24 posted on 01/15/2020 1:10:48 PM PST by enumerated
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To: jazusamo

I thought it was Pierre Delecto. Oops!


25 posted on 01/15/2020 1:12:42 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: yesthatjallen

Yep! Like saying, “I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation”. Or better yet, slap a gag order on the proceedings to keep the Dems from flapping their jaws at their media every chance they get.


26 posted on 01/15/2020 1:15:52 PM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: Magnum44

I agree...Anyone interested it the trial could watch it live or watch replays.

They’d get the actual facts unfiltered through the leftist enemedia.


27 posted on 01/15/2020 1:16:21 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: jazusamo

“If it is not dismissed the progs will constantly break all rules during the trial and screech “cover-up” when they are called on it and forced to stop.”

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3807623/posts?page=37#37

That is why they need the press there, to spin their planned antics.

.


28 posted on 01/15/2020 1:17:13 PM PST by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: jazusamo; All

Yak... yak... yak... Dismiss the friggin issue and talk about infrastructure and the national debt. All these assholes are a bunch of morons who want eternal soap opera and melodrama and don’t give a damn about the country. Just look at them. They all want their face in the cameras, even the Stupid Party Republicans.


29 posted on 01/15/2020 1:17:20 PM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isnÂ’t common anymore.)
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To: jazusamo

The press should be restricted from entry to the senate or house of representatives. Let them watch Cspan like every one else. Any press critter found in the building should be immediately tazed, pepper sprayed, then beaten unconscious and put in solitary confinement for a mimimum of one month.


30 posted on 01/15/2020 1:18:11 PM PST by contrarian (Yes I hate them)
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To: Yo-Yo

Concur. Limit the Democrat ability to spin while proceedings are happening.

Let the public see the farce w/o commentary.


31 posted on 01/15/2020 1:18:18 PM PST by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: HombreSecreto

Why do you need all the press? Provide them HD TV pumped into another room, far away.


32 posted on 01/15/2020 1:19:42 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: jeffc

How would you enforce that?
Threaten to make critical entry in the permanent record cards?


33 posted on 01/15/2020 1:21:19 PM PST by Reily
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To: 1Old Pro

NO! absolutely not. Many of them are self serving and or tools.


34 posted on 01/15/2020 1:21:41 PM PST by Leep (Everyday is Trump Day!)
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To: Reily

Mostly just wishful thinking on my part. The yellow-striped Repubs would never try that. The Dems might yell at them and call them names!


35 posted on 01/15/2020 1:23:30 PM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: Leep
NO! absolutely not. Many of them are self serving and or tools.

So if they are 10 miles away in an auditorium watching the proceedings on TV, like me, it limits their damage.

36 posted on 01/15/2020 1:23:35 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: jeffc

Why did they float this trial balloon and know they would receive carping, just do it.


37 posted on 01/15/2020 1:24:34 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: jazusamo
Another a damn fool. The Republican officials are such weak simple minded fools that it is no wonder the communist Democrats are running circles around them. This Republican party needs to start retiring the real jackasses, dozens of Republicans.
38 posted on 01/15/2020 1:24:38 PM PST by Logical me
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To: jazusamo

The same press that has been intentionally wrong about Trump for the past 3 years..The same press that conspired with the democrats overturn a legitimate election..that press?


39 posted on 01/15/2020 1:25:51 PM PST by Leep (Everyday is Trump Day!)
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To: Leep

Senators like Kennedy are totally self absorbed. He wants camera time and this proposal will interfere with that. He couldn’t care less about POTUS and the 60 million people who voted for him.


40 posted on 01/15/2020 1:27:05 PM PST by lodi90
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