In a bizarre turn of events Nancy Pelosi is now refusing to send her articles of impeachment to the Senate, suggesting the Senate thus far isn’t indicating that it will hold a fair trial and until it does, she won’t be sending them. This according to a Politico reporter:
NEW: Pelosi says she won't name impeachment managers until there's a "fair trial" in Senate — essentially holding up the process.
"So far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us," Pelosi said, without detailing exact demands.
"But right now, the president is impeached."
— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) December 19, 2019
Amazing that she’s calling for a ‘fair trial’ in the Senate after the blatantly unfair ‘Schiff Show’ that refused due process to the president and wouldn’t allow Republicans to call any of their own witnesses.
According to Chad Pergram, what Pelosi is doing with this move is to try and leverage her authority to force McConnell to negotiate with Schumer to get a longer impeachment trial in the Senate:
1) Pelosi indicated that the House might not immediately send articles of impeachment to the Senate – waiting to see if the Senate will conduct a fair trial.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 19, 2019
3) Pelosi is always deft at finding a wedge. So she's willing to hold onto the articles of impeachment to see if McConnell/Schumer can come to an agreement for a fair trial – and not tilt the field toward the President in the GOP-controlled Senate.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 19, 2019
Pergram suggests McConnell has leverage as well…
7) Pelosi has ball control here over whether the Hse will send impeachment articles to the Senate
By the same token, McConnell might say he’s not going to have a conversation with Schumer until there is something to discuss: e.g.- the articles are sent to the Senate.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 19, 2019
McConnell has already announced he’ll be speaking about impeachment in the morning, so we’ll see what he’s got to say:
At 9:30am tomorrow morning, on the Senate floor, I will speak about House Democrats’ precedent-breaking impeachment of the President of the United States.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) December 19, 2019
A couple of Republicans have weighed in on Twitter::
Is this a joke? Democrats impeach the President without alleging a single crime, with a bipartisan coalition voting AGAINST, and now don’t have the guts to actually try their case? Did they put the country through this chaos just for their own amusement? https://t.co/baUV3gobqk
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 19, 2019
No surprise that Speaker Pelosi is now refusing to send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate – making a mockery of the Constitution, the rules of the House and every member of the House Democrat caucus who voted to impeach.#ShamImpeachment https://t.co/SBLKirrYjo
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) December 19, 2019
This sums it up pretty well…
So basically the whole "we must impeach quickly to save the nation" was a load of BS.
— mallen (@mallen2010) December 19, 2019
Exactly. The whole thing has been BS because Trump didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. It’s all politics and Democrats will be the ones paying for it in 2020.