The top Senate Republican, Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is denouncing the “unfair” House impeachment of President Donald Trump by saying that “moments like this are why the United States Senate exists.”
McConnell ripped into Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats for their “shoddy work” saying that the Democrats are “too afraid” to send “their shoddy work product to the Senate” that they used to impeach the president Wednesday night right after the Speaker suddenly decided to hold off transferring the articles over to the Senate.
“This particular House of Representatives has let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future,” McConnell said at the podium on the floor of the Senate.
“Looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet,” McConnell reflected.
A trial in the Republican-controlled Senate will most certainly end in Trump being acquitted of the charges.
McConnell described Trump’s impeachment as “the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history.” His words stem from the longstanding complaints by House Republicans that the Democrats impeachment debacle trampled all over minority rights in pursuit of an impeachment they were seeking even before Trump won the election in 2016.
Outside of abusing the House’s power of impeachment many times over throughout their process, Pelosi is now trying to dictate when the Senate will hold a trial. There’s just one problem… the Constitution.
Article I, Section 3, Clause 6:
“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”
The Constitution does not give any power to the House for an impeachment trial. It only gives them authority over impeachment, which has now ended.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 states:
“The House of Representatives… shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
Pelosi is withholding the articles being transferred over to the Senate for the sole purpose of damaging Trump as much as possible for the 2020 election. Either that, or Pelosi wants to wait until the next election, so that if they take over the Senate, they can then hand over the articles and force the removal of Trump who would have just been reelected. It’s such a low point for America.
There is nothing in the Constitution that says a trial is dependent upon the articles being handed over to the Senate. The Democrat House has impeached President Trump. We all witnessed the vote, and the forthcoming cheers and celebrating by Democrats, so the Senate doesn’t need the articles to assume their role in the process.
Pelosi gave us a whopper of a lie by claiming she was doing this [impeachment] to protect the Constitution and the democracy. Okay then. Since the Constitution gives the Senate sole power to try all impeachments, that means the Senate can set the date and time of the trial, with or without the articles. If the House impeachment managers don’t want to abide by the Senate’s trial schedule, then they lose by default.
When asked about why she is refusing to send the articles over to the Senate she responded by saying, “We’ll make a decision… as we go along,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday, adding that “we’ll see what the process will be on the Senate side.”
“We have acted,” Pelosi continued as she continued to refuse to commit to send over the articles. “Now, they’ll understand what their responsibilities are, and we’ll see what that is.”
The Senate already knows what their responsibilities are. They’re the Senate, and they have 100 percent sole power over the impeachment trial.
Pelosi is trying to interfere with the Senate trial. She’s right. The Democrats have acted, and now their powers over the process are over.
The gall of that woman to insist that Republicans need to run a “fair trial” is staggering! There was nothing fair at all about their impeachment. Pelosi has no authority to tell the Senate to do anything. A fair trial to Democrats is removal from office by any means and nothing else.
Pelosi, in an attempt to make things clear during a press conference Thursday morning, said that the Democrats are just waiting to see what the process will be in the Senate, so they can choose their “managers” for a trial who would essentially serve as prosecutors.
Great! The Senate should then tell Pelosi that they’re waiting for the articles to be transferred before they officially work on a process and throw in a few nah nah nah nah nah nahs while they’re at it.
This is absurd! Pelosi and Nadler know full well that the Senate might just dismiss the articles outright, because they are ridiculous at best and extremely dangerous to our republic at worst. They’re trying to get the Senate to commit to a trial through House-led concessions, and they have no authority to do so. The Democrats will use this stalling period to meet with every news camera they can in the meantime to constantly give the message that the Senate trial will be unfair, essentially trying to rig the trial for the outcome they want.
The Senate should call Pelosi’s bluff and set the trial date for as soon as possible, and then dismiss the charges outright.
