Senate Majority leader McConnell HAS TO tell the Speaker of the House how he will run Donald Trump’s impeachment trial….
The House is part of the process…
Trump stonewalling the House investigation is a sore spot for Democrats….
Added to all this is that Democrats in the Judiciary committee are still receibving information on the 2016 election and have made it known that they would consider starting a second impeachment investigation…
All this IS the Democrats batting up McConnell for openly disobeying the clause in the constitution that says the US Senate as jurors on the impeachment shall be ‘impartial’, something McConnell and Graham have openly said they aren’t to make Trump happy….
This whole this is NOT gonna be a quick slam dunk…
Trump won’t be convicted …
But the Democrats with a House majority will make Trump uncomfortable for a good while longer….Senate Minority leader Schumer must be part of the final trial agreement and he’s been talking to Pelosi….
McConnell really has no choice…
Since Wednesday’s near-party-line House vote to impeach Trump, Pelosi has declined to formally send the two articles across the Capitol, the first necessary step to begin the trial.
Pelosi wrote in a tweet Monday that the House cannot move forward with choosing impeachment managers for the Senate trial “until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct.”
“President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process,” Pelosi tweeted. “What is his excuse now?”
…
Aware for several weeks that impeachment was headed their way, McConnell and Schumer did not hold a discussion until Thursday, the day after the House impeached Trump. The two senators stuck to their positions and emerged with no agreement.
On the Senate floor later that day, McConnell declared they were at an “impasse,” and the chamber shuttered for a 2½ -week break over the holidays.
The Senate must pass a resolution, requiring a simple majority, to begin the trial. McConnell reiterated his position Monday that the trial should proceed in a manner similar to the 1999 impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, in which the House managers presented their case and the president’s lawyers rebutted the prosecution. After that came a session in which senators submitted written questions to the two teams, and then the Senate dealt with the issue of witnesses — ultimately deciding to conduct three closed-door depositions.
McConnell signaled during the Louisville news conference Monday that he doesn’t expect much progress on the impasse before lawmakers return to Washington after the holidays.
“I don’t have anything to add,” he said.
When a reporter asked about Pelosi holding onto the articles of impeachment, McConnell said, “As I’ve said repeatedly, we can’t take up a matter we don’t have.”
Asked what role impeachment might play in his bid for reelection next year, McConnell replied, “Who knows?”
image….Axios