Pelosi has McConnell and Trump's, uh, you know, in a vice

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/20/1906974/-Pelosi-has-McConnell-and-Trump-s-uh-you-know-in-a-vice

Pelosi has McConnell and Trump's, uh, you know, in a vice
Laura Clawson
Daily Kos Staff
Friday December 20, 2019 · 11:35 AM EST


Donald Trump has been impeached. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the articles of impeachment in hand, but she’s not just turning them over to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for him to make them disappear in “total coordination” with the White House, as he’s pledged. No, Pelosi says that she’s holding on to the impeachment articles until McConnell provides a Senate trial process that Senate Democrats can agree to.

Pelosi says that all she needs to see is a “fair trial” process, and then she can transmit the impeachment articles and name impeachment managers. But she knows who she’s dealing with, saying, “I don’t think anybody expected that we would have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time.”

Trump and McConnell are trying to make out that they have the upper hand here, but they want those articles of impeachment in the Senate, where McConnell can make them go away quickly. That’s why McConnell is trying to bait Pelosi by suggesting she’s too scared to send the articles to the Senate. This is not succeeding. “Oh pfft,” Pelosi told Politico. “Fear is never a word used with me. You should know right away. I’m never afraid and I’m rarely surprised.”

McConnell has met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about parameters for a Senate trial, but says they are at an impasse. That’s the impasse that Pelosi is trying to help break by giving McConnell a little incentive to be reasonable. As long as McConnell holds out, bent on providing a Senate process that is not remotely impartial, Trump could remain impeached but not yet acquitted.