The oath is administered any time the Senate considers impeachment. Previous trials show lawmakers have used their own judgment to follow its intent.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hi., has said she's ready to convict President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial that starts next week. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. is a staunch ally of the president who has called the charges a"sham."
It takes at least two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes, to convict Trump on the two charges filed by the House – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – and remove him from office. Nobody expects that to happen in the GOP-controlled Senate where Republicans occupy 53 of the 100 seats. In response, the watchdog group Public Citizen filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee earlier this month against McConnell to determine whether the majority leader's recent statements violate his oath as well as the rules of the Senate requiring impartiality. The complaint seeks a determination on whether he should recuse himself from the impeachment proceedings.
“What the oath established was that each senator was answerable for his vote, not to his constituents or his party, but to the law, the Constitution, and to God,” they wrote in “Presidents Creating the Presidency.” “The `impartial justice’ to which each senator was pledged was the justice the president’s defenders were calling for.”
"Given that specific requirement of 'impartiality,' the oath taken by virtually every senator will be false, whether or not he or she has spoken publicly to the issue," Cohen argued."So here’s the real question. What’s the true value of an oath that unambiguously demands `impartiality' when partiality on both sides has decided the case before the proceedings begin?"
During a 2010 trial of a judge, the Senate trial committee noted that there is no set standard of proof of wrongdoing so each senator could use the standard he or she felt was appropriate.
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