Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr (R-NC) expects the Senate impeachment trial to drag on for quite a while.
According to a CNN report Tuesday, Burr predicted that the Senate impeachment trial will last from “six to eight weeks” during a conversation a day earlier at Wake Forest University that also featured Vice Senate Intel Chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, by comparison, lasted five weeks.
CNN reported that Burr also said that he doesn’t believe that much will be learned from the House Intelligence Committee’s public impeachment inquiry hearings this week because most of the transcripts of the testimonies are already public.
Although Burr additionally argued that “nobody wins” from impeachment, citing his previous experience with the Clinton impeachment trial during his tenure as a House representative, CNN reported that the North Carolina Republican refused to predict the outcome of the impeachment proceedings due to the “likelihood” that he will serve as a juror in the Senate trial.
Burr added “the day the [Senate] takes [the impeachment trial] up, we go into session six days a week from 12:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.” according to CNN.
Last week, Burr broke from Trump and Graham by arguing that the identity of the whistleblower, whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry, should remain anonymous to the public.
In September, Burr said that although the Senate Intelligence Committee is committed to making “sure that we get to the bottom of what questions we need answers,” he warned that it would not move at “light speed” like its counterpart in the House.
