Impeachment Reaction
If the impeachment proceedings advance to the Senate, Utah Senator Orin Hatch will likely become a key figure in the debate. News Specialist Robert Walz caught up with the senator to get his reaction to Friday's events.
Senator Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah: "I warned him. I said, 'Mr. President, you're going to be impeached if you lie before the grand jury.' And I don't there are many people really looking at it fairly who would doubt that he lied."
President's Apology
Hatch: "He really didn't admit he had lied, and people knew that he has. I think it backfired on him."
Impeachment?
Hatch: "We don't have the votes in the senate to convict, so he knows that regardless of what happens here, unless something new arrives."
Partisan Politics
Hatch: "When it comes down to the actual trial, my experience is that senators take it very, very seriously... There are a few of them who probably believe the President should be impeached, but who probably won't vote for impeachment because they are afraid to."
If the full house adopts the articles of impeachment a trial will be held in the senate. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would preside. House members would prosecute the President and the senate becomes the jury. At this point Senator Hatch says he has no idea what direction this will go.
