Thread by @RandPaul

I'll be speaking on the senate floor about impeachment around 12:30 today. Watch live here: c-span.org/congress/?cham…

This impeachment is nothing more than a partisan exercise designed to further divide the country. Democrats claim to want unify the country but impeaching a former president, a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity.

Democrats brazenly appointing a pro impeachment democrat to preside over the trial is not fair or impartial and hardly indicates any kind of unity for the country.

No, unity is the opposite of this travesty we are about to witness.

If we are about to try to impeach a President - where is the Chief Justice?

If the accused is no longer President - where is the constitutional power to impeach him?

Private citizens don’t get impeached. Impeachment is for removal from office, and the accused here has already left office.

Hyper-partisan Democrats are about to drag our great country down into the gutter of rancor and vitriol the likes of which has never been seen in our nation’s history.

Instead of doing the nation’s work with their new majorities in the House, Senate and Executive Branch, Democrats are wasting the nation’s time on a partisan vendetta against a man no longer in office. It’s almost as if they have no ability to exist except in opposition to Trump

Without him as their boogeyman, they might have to legislate, and to actually convince Americans that their policy prescriptions are the right ones.

I want this body on record. Is this how you think politics should be?

In a few minutes I will insist on a vote to affirm that this proceeding is unconstitutional...