House and Senate leaders tussle over impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell added to a congressional spat Thursday over the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, saying House Democrats were “too afraid ... to transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate.”
McConnell, R-Ky., spoke a day after the Democratic-led House approved two articles of impeachment and after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that she might delay forwarding the articles to the Senate, delaying Trump’s expected acquittal at trial.
Pelosi’s move appeared intended to put pressure on Senate Republicans to accept at least some Democratic demands for the trial, and particularly over whether the Senate should call some of Trump’s current and former aides who had refused to testify in the House.
Thus, while Republicans bitterly complained about “process” during the House impeachment inquiry, Democrats now have picked up the charge as the impeachment moves to the Republican-controlled Senate.
McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday that Pelosi’s refusal to forward the articles showed that the three-month House impeachment inquiry was flawed and unfair, and Democrats are afraid to give Trump his day in court.
“Speaker Pelosi suggested that House Democrats may be too afraid, too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate,” McConnell said.
In a news conference Wednesday night, Pelosi questioned why Democrats should submit to a Senate trial given McConnell’s vows to work closely with the White House, and said she would not name the House “managers,” lawmakers who will present evidence at the trial, until it’s clear how the trial will be conducted.
“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” she said. “But right now, the president is impeached.”
On Thursday, Pelosi said House managers were not chosen for President Bill Clinton’s trial in 1999 until after Senate trial rules were set. Knowing the rules would help her determine how many managers are needed and who should be picked, she told reporters.
McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York are expected to meet Thursday to discuss potential rules for the trial.
Schumer has asked McConnell to call four witnesses, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton. Schumer proposed starting the week of Jan. 6 and allowing up to 126 hours of statements, testimony and deliberations — meaning a trial of at least three weeks.
McConnell largely shot down that request and suggested he wants a short trial without witnesses. Trump has gone both ways, saying he wants to call his own witnesses but later saying he would defer to McConnell.
“Is the president’s case so weak that none of the president’s men can defend him under oath?” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday. “If the House case is so weak, why is leader McConnell so afraid of witnesses and documents?”
If Pelosi does not select managers Thursday, the House won’t have time to vote to approve them before it adjourns for the year. The House returns Jan. 7.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., questioned how Pelosi’s move gives Schumer leverage for the Senate trial.
“I hate to break the news to the Resistance, but you have zero leverage. You can keep your partisan impeachment articles as long as you want. (McConnell and the) Senate will just keep confirming judges, approving trade deals, & doing the people’s business,” Cotton tweeted.