Ever since the House impeached President Donald Trump, he and his allies have been flipping out over Democrats’ decision to delay transmitting their case to the Senate for a trial. They enacted that delay while advocating for fairness in the trial, which they’ve sought to have include key witness testimony from figures like Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton. This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) denounced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over his obstruction push, which included him signing onto a resolution demanding that the impeachment case be transmitted within 25 days or be simply dismissed by the Senate outright. It’s unclear how constitutional that the resolution even is.
Pelosi tweeted:
‘By joining a resolution to dismiss, Sen. McConnell showed his true colors. Americans have now seen what is at stake in a fair trial with witnesses & evidence, and new evidence has emerged. Every Senator will have to vote: is their loyalty is to the President or the Constitution?’
By joining a resolution to dismiss, Sen. McConnell showed his true colors. Americans have now seen what is at stake in a fair trial with witnesses & evidence, and new evidence has emerged. Every Senator will have to vote: is their loyalty is to the President or the Constitution?
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 10, 2020
As she indicates, no matter obstruction attempts from McConnell and his allies, Senate Democrats intend to force votes on key questions like whether to hear from witnesses. Republicans want to delay even considering that question until after opening arguments and initial questions from Senators, and McConnell has announced that he has the votes lined up to proceed with that plan, although Democrats can propose amendments to the initial trial rules resolution anyway.
All of this will likely unfold soon, since Pelosi has indicated that she’s preparing to transmit the impeachment case to the Senate this coming week. Perhaps she believes she’s extracted all that she can from the Senate, whose Republican leaders have now shown their commitment to defending Trump no matter the costs and whose Democratic members have had a chance to drive home their demands for fairness.
Check out Twitter’s response below…
