Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has won a political game of chess against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding the next step of the impeachment against President Trump, according to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
House Democrats passed two articles of impeachment against the president late last year for abuse of power and another on obstruction of Congress following the scandal surrounding his July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine, during which he asked the foreign leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Pelosi has since withheld the articles from the Senate, citing her lack of confidence a Senate trial would be fair.
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Senate Democrats want to hear from more witnesses during a trial, an idea McConnell has balked at. Republicans on Capitol Hill have argued that Pelosi’s hesitation proves the fast-paced House impeachment process was not as urgent as she claimed. The Senate Majority leader said Wednesday he has the votes to amend Senate rules to push ahead with the trial without the articles.
“Whatever the ploy was, she [Pelosi] made her point, and that’s it,” Camerota said on the network Thursday morning. “Basically Mitch McConnell has sort of won this one.”
The network’s political correspondent Dana Bash echoed Camerota’s point, noting that there’s “a growing frustration inside not just the Senate Democratic caucus, but the House Democratic caucus to say get on with this.”
Bash said Democrats have expressed their frustration with Pelosi’s move privately but have not gone public with their displeasure because the House speaker “never forgets.”
CNN’s Dana Bash: “growing frustration inside” the Democrat Party on Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to send impeachment articles to the Senate. pic.twitter.com/aGqTGXGqi5
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 9, 2020
Trump has called the impeachment a “hoax” and a “total witch hunt” that Congress is wasting time and money on. A Senate trial is expected to begin as early as next week.
