Apparently, someone with more political savviness helped Donald Trump draw the key people to him. This is both within POTUS’ White House administration oversight and out of sight of the cameras. These shadowy figures knew exactly which levers to pull.
One of those that Trump needed was Attorney General William Barr who represented not the people but the president. Then, there was the former majority leader of the House Intelligence Committee Kevin Dunes before the House went Democratic. Another key figure was Senate Majority Leader Mitch “the Grim Reaper” McConnell (R-KY).
McConnell has been quick to give his opinion normally. Yet, he was unnaturally quiet during the entire impeachment trial proceedings. Of course, the sentence for speaking was jail time. Just prior to Wednesday’s final vote on an airless Senate floor, he insisted that both of the House’s two articles of impeachment were “constitutionally incoherent” and “dangerous,” according to The Courier-Journal:
‘This does not even approach a case for the first presidential removal in American history. … Such an act cannot rest alone on the exercise of a constitutional power combined with concerns about whether the president’s motivations were public or personal and a disagreement over whether the exercise of power was in the national interest.’
Although this Republican Senate leader normally blocks everything that comes from the House, killing off all of its bills, Mitch McConnell only had a few choice words for the impeachment process. He continued:
‘Was this all an effort to hijack our institution for a month-long political rally? We have indeed witnessed an abuse of power … by just the kind of House majority that the Framers warned us about.’
In case, the Senate floor did not hear him, McConnell repeated his idea that the House impeachment investigation was “reckless” [and the]Â most rushed, least fair” in history.
McConnell urged senators to acquit Trump and reject House Democrats’ “abuse of power:”
‘We must vote to reject the House abuse of power, vote to protect our institutions, vote to reject new precedents that would reduce the Framers’ design to rubble. I urge every one of our colleagues to cast the vote … clearly required, vote to acquit the president of these charges.’
The House had little realistic concern it could reach the 67-vote threshold for a convicted president. However, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) noted, a label of “impeached” is the political equivalent of a Scarlett Letter, one that he will carry for the rest of his life and into history. McConnell said that the final Senate vote would come mere hours after the president’s third State of the Union address.
The Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY)Â added his opinion. He suggested that he feared the senators would rue the day they voted against additional witnesses and evidentiary documents:
‘The idea that that means you shouldn’t have witnesses and documents when we’re doing something as august, as important as an impeachment trial fails the laugh test. It makes people believe, correctly in my judgment, that the administration, its top people and Senate Republicans are all hiding the truth.’
A few of the Republican and Democratic senators have kept their ultimate vote close to their vest. The entire Republican-led, Trump Party Senate will vote on Wednesday to acquit POTUS of the House’s two articles of impeachment.
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.
