Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) laid down the law on Wednesday and told off House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“There will be no haggling with the House over Senate procedure. We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment. The House Democrats’ turn is over. The Senate has made its decision. This is for the Senate, and the Senate only, to decide,” McConnell said in a tweet.
There will be no haggling with the House over Senate procedure. We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment. The House Democrats’ turn is over. The Senate has made its decision. This is for the Senate, and the Senate only, to decide.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) January 8, 2020
Fox News reported that Pelosi told colleagues in a letter that she will not give the articles of impeachment to the Senate unless McConnell ‘immediately publishes’ his resolution and accused the Senate Majority Leader of making “misleading claims” about the Clinton impeachment to justify his strategy.
“Sadly, Leader McConnell has made clear that his loyalty is to the President and not the Constitution,” Pelosi wrote. “Leader McConnell has insisted that the approach under consideration is identical to those of the Clinton trial and that ‘fair is fair.’ This is simply not true.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that the Senate has the votes to move forward with phase one of the impeachment trial.
“Fifty-one senators determine what we do and there will be, I’m sure, intense discussion, once we get past phase one, about the whole witness issue,” McConnell said, while also insisting that the Senate first receive the articles from the House.
Even Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein is fed up with Pelosi’s delay tactics and demanded the articles of impeachment be delivered to the Senate.
“If we’re going to do it, she should send them over,” Feinstein said blasting Pelosi. “I don’t see what good delay does.”
