David Brooks, one of the New York Times' in-house conservatives, yesterday: "Donald Trump is impulse-driven, ignorant, narcissistic and intellectually dishonest." Yes, he's right and most Americans know it and agree with it, but none of that is really anything that's impeachable. Ted Lieu's one minute speech on the House floor Thursday (above) should be part-- a big part-- of the Trump impeachment trial... but it won't be. If there even is a trial. As you know, Moscow Mitch and many of the Senate Republicans have signed on to a motion to dismiss the impeachment charges without a trial. Witnesses? Not while Moscow Mitch runs the show. (Worth mentioning, though, is that on Tuesday, in an MSNBC interview, Andrea Mitchell asked Adam Schiff if he would subpoena John Bolton and he said... maybe. "We haven’t taken that off the table. I think what makes the most sense, though, is for him to testify in the Senate trial… They should hear directly from one of the key witnesses, and for senators to say, no, they would rather move to dismiss the case than hear from people who have first-hand information tells you a lot about their partiality. They’re not living up to the oath they’ve taken of being impartial jurors.")
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is backing a resolution to change the Senate’s rules to allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over.Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced on Thursday that McConnell has signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution, which he introduced earlier this week.Spokesmen for McConnell didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about his support.
This is the letter Pelosi sent to the House Democrats yesterday laying out the next steps in the Trump impeachment drama:
For weeks now, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has been engaged in tactics of delay in presenting transparency, disregard for the American people’s interest for a fair trial and dismissal of the facts.Yesterday, he showed his true colors and made his intentions to stonewall a fair trial even clearer by signing on to a resolution that would dismiss the charges. A dismissal is a cover-up and deprives the American people of the truth. Leader McConnell’s tactics are a clear indication of the fear that he and President Trump have regarding the facts of the President’s violations for which he was impeached.The American people have clearly expressed their view that we should have a fair trial with witnesses and documents, with more than 70 percent of the public stating that the President should allow his top aides to testify. Clearly, Leader McConnell does not want to present witnesses and documents to Senators and the American people so they can make an independent judgment about the President’s actions.Honoring our Constitution, the House passed two articles of impeachment against the President-- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress-- to hold the President accountable for asking a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 elections for his own political and personal gain.While the House was able to obtain compelling evidence of impeachable conduct, which is enough for removal, new information has emerged, which includes:• On December 20, new emails showed that 91 minutes after Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky, a top Office of Management and Budget (OMB) aide asked the Department of Defense to “hold off” on sending military aid to Ukraine.• On December 29, revelations emerged about OMB Director and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s role in the delay of aid, the effort by lawyers at the OMB, the Department of Justice and the White House to justify the delay, and the alarm that the delay caused within the Administration.• On January 2, newly-unredacted Pentagon emails, which we had subpoenaed and the President had blocked, raised serious concerns by Trump Administration officials about the legality of the President’s hold on aid to Ukraine.• And on January 6, just this week, former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton announced he would comply with a subpoena compelling his testimony. His lawyers have stated he has new relevant information.I am very proud of the courage and patriotism exhibited by our House Democratic Caucus as we support and defend the Constitution. I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the Floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate. I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further.In an impeachment trial, every Senator takes an oath to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” Every Senator now faces a choice: to be loyal to the President or the Constitution.No one is above the law, not even the President.
