McConnell remains unmoved. On Fox News on Monday, he said Schumer should “quit the charade” that either party leader is an impartial witness and reiterated that any witness decisions would be left until after the trial begins. The two leaders are "at an impasse," McConnell said.
When he addressed local media a few hours later at an event in Louisville, McConnell suggested the standstill could persist until January when Congress gets back from its holiday recess. And he was much more interested in boasting of the windfalls to Kentucky in the year-end spending bills than discussing impeachment.
“Everything that could be said has been said,” McConnell said of the impending trial. “We’ll find out when we come back in session.”
McConnell starts out by discussing Pelosi withholding the impeachment articles, seemingly not that bothered by it to be honest. He said the Senate can’t get started on anything impeachment without the articles and suggested that by withholding them Pelosi is trying to control how the Senate runs the impeachment trial. He added that he’d rather her keep the articles as he’s not in a hurry to do anything with this impeachment.
McConnell also ripped Schumer of his complaints that he’s not being impartial, saying “Do you think Chuck Schumer’s impartial? Do you think Elizabeth Warren is impartial? Do you think Bernie Sanders is impartial? So let’s quit the charade. This is a political exercise.”
His point is obvious. You have several Democrats actually running against Trump in the 2020 election who will be jurors in the Senate trial. They are the furthest thing from impartial! Democrats and the media are only using ‘impartiality’ to hammer Senate Republicans to get the most damaging trial they can for Trump.
There’s a lot more in the video so be sure and watch it above…
McConnell All But Declares There’ll Be No Movement On Impeachment Until After Holidays
ReplyDeleteSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) signaled on Monday there would be no movement on impeachment until after Congress returns to session in January.
Speaking to reporters in Kentucky, McConnell was tight-lipped about impeachment proceedings and how the Senate intends to handle the articles once they come over from the House, pointing local reporters instead to a “Fox and Friends” interview he gave on Monday morning.
“I think we’ll find out when we come back in session where we are,” he said, signaling that there’d be no decision on a Senate trial until after the holidays.
McConnell also jabbed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for delaying the transmission of the articles. Pelosi has indicated she would send the articles over once she knows how the Senate plans to conduct its trial, so she’ll have a better idea of how many impeachment managers to assign to the task. Republicans have seized on this delay as a sign of Democrats getting weak-kneed about their case.
“We can’t take up a matter we don’t have, so hopefully they’ll be on the way over at some point,” he said.
When asked about how impeachment proceedings might impact his next election, McConnell was honest: “Who knows,” he said.
Last week the leader of the upper chamber told reporters that he and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were at an impasse over how to handle impeachment. Schumer sent a letter to colleagues on Monday, saying he wanted four witnesses to speak at a robust Senate trial and requested documents relevant to Ukraine be provided as well. McConnell has indicated he doesn’t want Democrats or Republicans to call in witnesses, but he says his caucus has not quite reached a decision. That indication appears to be in contrast with what President Trump has publicly claimed he’d like to see.