Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke from the Senate floor and complained about the House’s decision to not send the Articles of Impeachment over to him. His whining voice sounded like fingernails on the chalkboard as he criticized the House trial as the “most rushed, least thorough and most unfair.”
He has taken a page from Donald Trump’s attack on the House Democrats, playing the victim:
‘How inappropriate and how embarrassing to rush forward on a partisan basis and then treat … what you’ve done like a political toy. How contemptuous of the American people.’
McConnell continued:
‘Democrats appeared to be waiting for some mythical leverage [included in] pretrial hostage negotiation. I’ve had difficulty figuring out where the leverage is.’
This was far from the first time McConnell attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). She has made the decision to hold the Articles of Impeachment until McConnell agreed to have witnesses in the Senate trial against Donald Trump.
McConnell groused that the Democratic House had “cold feet.”
The House held hearings about the impeachment of Trump and then passed two Articles of Impeachment. Those alleged that the POTUS abused his presidential powers by requesting Ukraine find dirt on a presidential campaign opponent. The second article claimed that he was obstructive during Congress’ attempts to investigate that charge.
Pelosi has still refused to give the Republicans a date for sending the Articles of Impeachment, so that McConnell can begin the Senate trial. Pundits question whether her action bothers the Senate Leader. However, it does delay the start of the history-making trial. Republicans want the trial to compete by February 5 when Trump gives his State of the Union address.
Conversely, Pelosi wanted the trial to continue past that time, because that way Trump would not be able to claim he had been exonerated. Of course, just because the Republicans have the party-line votes to keep Trump in office would not mean that the president was exonerated.
Pelosi said that she was waiting to find out whether the Republicans will be having a trial with witnesses. Then, she could appoint House managers appropriate to the trial.
Senator Schumer has said he wanted a resolution at the start of the trial over rules and calling specific witnesses. The Democrats would prefer to have four of them, including the commander-in-chief’s National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton. The NSA announced on Monday that he would willingly testify if subpoenaed.
Schumer responded to the president on Tuesday:
‘Mr. Trump if you believe you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of from witnesses and documents. If my Republican colleagues believe the president has done nothing wrong, they should have nothing to fear.”;
On the other hand, McConnell wanted one resolution dealing with the procedures for the trial. His second one would be passed after each side gave its opening arguments. It would decide which witnesses, would be called. It would take 51 votes for witnesses to be requested.
McConnell added:
‘If that unanimous bipartisan precedent was good enough for President Clinton, it should be our template for President Trump. Fair is fair.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
