On Friday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) emphatically rejected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) attempt to dictate the rules of the Senate impeachment trial.
“Their turn is over. They’ve done enough damage. It’s the Senate’s turn now to render sober judgment,” said McConnell, Fox News reported.
It’s “obviously a non-starter,” he said. Then he accused House Democrats of having “cold feet.”
McConnell also blasted Democrats for putting “short-term partisan rage” before “core governing traditions.”
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Addressing Pelosi’s holding back the articles of impeachment as a “sad spectacle,” he added that “House Democrats cared more about attacking President Trump…so they rushed a slapdash investigation.”
“They decided not to bother with the standard legal processes for pursuing witnesses and evidence,” he said.
“The same people who’d just spent weeks screaming that impeachment was so serious and so urgent that it could not even wait for due process now decided it could wait indefinitely while they checked the political winds and looked for new talking points,” he added accurately.
“Their turn is over,” he concluded. “They have done enough damage. It’s the Senate’s turn now — to render sober judgment as the framers envisioned. But we can’t hold a trial without the articles. The Senate’s own rules don’t provide for that. So, for now, we are content to continue the ordinary business of the Senate while House Democrats continue to flounder. For now.”
Sen. McConnell: “We’ll have to decide whether we’re going to safeguard core governing traditions or let partisan rage overcome them.” pic.twitter.com/osjFzNE3yq
— The Hill (@thehill) January 3, 2020
Chuck & Nancy Are Angry
Both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are up in arms over not being allowed to mandate the terms of the trial.
Schumer accused Leader McConnell of acting as an executioner. “Will we conduct a fair trial that examines all the facts or not? The country just saw Sen. McConnell‘s answer to that question. His answer is no,” Schumer said.
In her statement, Pelosi said,
“Today, Leader McConnell made clear that he will feebly comply with President Trump’s cover-up of his abuses of power and be an accomplice to that cover-up.
“Leader McConnell is doubling down on his violation of his oath, even after the exposure of new, deeply incriminating documents this week which provide further evidence of what we know: President Trump abused the power of his office for personal, political gain.
“The American people deserve the truth. Every Senator now faces a choice: to be loyal to the President or the Constitution.”
It’s a clown show. The House can’t impeach and then refuse to give the President an opportunity to due process. And the Senate has sole power over the trial, not her.
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