On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party for not immediately presenting articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate.
At a press conference Wednesday night that followed the House’s passing of two articles of impeachment against Trump, Pelosi said she might hold back on presenting articles to the Senate.
“We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side,” Pelosi told reporters. “So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us. So hopefully it will be fair. And when we see what that is, we’ll send our managers.”
In a Thursday morning speech on the Senate floor, McConnell went after the decision, saying, “Speaker Pelosi suggested that House Democrats may be too afraid — too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate. Mr.President it looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet in front of the entire country and second-guessing whether they even want to go to trial.”
McConnell’s comments came just days after he promised on Fox News to use his powers to tilt a Senate impeachment trial in Trump’s favor.
Appearing on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, McConnell told the conservative host he was “coordinating with White House counsel” on the impeachment trial strategy.
“There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this, to the extent that we can,” McConnell said.
Pelosi rejected McConnell’s statements in her own comments on Thursday morning, noting the Founders never “suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time.”
Prior to the House passing articles of impeachment, Senate Republicans made clear their intention to rig events in Trump’s favor.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN, “I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.”
“This thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly,” he added.
McConnell has also rejected a request from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to call witnesses before the Senate during its trial of Trump.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
