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WASHINGTON — Minutes after the House voted to impeach President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dropped a bombshell: She won’t send the articles of impeachment to the Senate until she feels they’ll get a fair hearing on the other side of Capitol Hill.
“We have legislation approved by the Rules Committee that will enable us to decide how we will send over the articles of impeachment,” Pelosi announced in a Wednesday night press conference. “We cannot name [impeachment] managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side.”
The move could delay a Senate trial — and is a move by House Democratic leaders to try to leverage their power to force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to make concessions on how the trial will be run.
McConnell has been explicit that his only goal is to help Trump and the GOP, declaring on Tuesday that he’s “not an impartial juror” shortly after saying he was coordinating directly with the White House on impeachment strategy.
READ: Trump Just Got Impeached While Holding a 'Merry Christmas' Rally
McConnell has refused Democrats’ demand to call witnesses in the Senate trial — a major departure from the bipartisan process embraced by the Senate during President Clinton’s impeachment trial. And he’s pushed to try to get through the impeachment trial as rapidly, with as little fanfare, as possible.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schif (D-Calif.) backed up his leader.
“The question is now whether Sen. McConnell will allow a fair trial in the Senate, whether the majority leader will allow a trial that involves witnesses and testimony and documents. A trial that should be fair to the president, yes, but should be fair to the American people,” he said.
Pelosi’s move could help Democrats pressure McConnell to change his tune. But it also took a day that had been focused heavily on the bevy of evidence that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political foes and made her closing comments about process, a muddled fight Republicans would much rather have.
READ: It's official: Trump just got impeached
Remarkably, Pelosi repeatedly refused to guarantee that the Senate would ever get the articles of impeachment, effectively undercutting the pressure that the Constitutional requirement that the Senate act swiftly on articles of impeachment.
House Democrats had been talking in recent days about taking this unprecedented step after a historic vote on impeachment — this has never been done before. It remains to be seen which side this benefits.
Cover: U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi holds a press conference after the House passed Resolution 755, Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 18, 2019. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
wrongmoviequotes on December 19th, 2019 at 05:08 UTC »
This sure as fuck wasnt in McConnells playbook. Their plan was to railroad through a bullshit trial and dismiss charges ASAP to make it look like the articles were totally invalid. Now instead all headlines are "trump is impeached" and any response from the senate happens when Pelosi decides. She completely yanked the narrative away from the GOP and its hilarious.
80s_Teen on December 19th, 2019 at 03:58 UTC »
Wait...so Trump wants this over so he can gloat about being exonerated.
But now he has to sit and stew and hope nothing else worse comes out?
If it’s what you say, I love it,especially later in the summer.
ranchoparksteve on December 19th, 2019 at 03:25 UTC »
If you game this out: 1) McConnell and Schumer publicly feud on Senate rules, with McConnell blatantly and intentionally refusing a fair trial; 2) Pelosi waits for that resolution, but it never seems to progress; 3) Trump can’t get his “acquittal” since he won’t allow McConnell to play it legit.
So, Pelosi gets the last word. McConnell doesn’t have to preside over a sham. They both have a hammer over Trump’s head for the remainder of his term since the Impeachment always has the possibility of kicking loose. Congress achieves its check on the Executive.