Top Republican calls on U.S. Senate to correct 'toxic' impeachment case

By Susan Cornwell and Patricia Zengerle

 

A jogger runs along the Washington Monument at sunrise following the U.S. House of Representatives previous-day vote to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican in the U.S. Senate on Thursday called on his fellow senators to correct what he called the "toxic" impeachment of President Donald Trump, sending the strongest signal yet that lawmakers will not remove Trump from office.

 

In a harsh attack, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the Democratic-dominated House of Representatives of succumbing to "transient passions and factionalism" when it voted on Wednesday to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

 

Trump, only the third U.S. president to be impeached, is likely to go on trial in the Senate early in January on the charges related to his attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic political foe Joe Biden.

 

It was unclear exactly what the trial would look like or when it would happen, however. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she will not send the case to the Senate until she gets a sense of the trial's parameters, comments seen as an effort to win concessions for Democrats who want high-profile witnesses who might embarrass Trump to testify.

 

Republicans control the 100-member Senate and none of them has indicated a willingness to remove Trump, who is running for re-election in November 2020.

 

The impeachment of President Donald Trump in the U.S. House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress sets the stage for a historic trial next month in the Republican-controlled Senate on whether he should be removed from office. Chris Dignam has more.

 

Dismissing the impeachment vote as "slapdash," McConnell made it clear that he did not think the Senate should find Trump guilty.

 

"The vote did not reflect what had been proven. It only reflects how they feel about the president. The Senate must put this right," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

 

"This particular House of Representatives has let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future," he said.

 

McConnell has already said he is working in tandem with the White House on trial preparations, drawing accusations from Democrats that he is ignoring his duty to consider the evidence in an impartial manner.

 

Representative Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, said on MSNBC that Democrats were concerned McConnell may not allow a full trial.

"It's very hard to believe that Mitch McConnell can raise his right hand and pledge to be impartial," Hoyer said.

 

Trump, 73, is accused of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, a former U.S. vice president, as well as a discredited theory that Democrats conspired with Ukraine to meddle in the 2016 election.

 

Democrats say that as part of his pressure campaign, Trump held back $391 million in security aid for Ukraine and a coveted White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as leverage to coerce Kiev into interfering in the 2020 election by smearing Biden.

 

Trump is also accused of obstruction of Congress for directing administration officials and agencies not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

 

A Senate trial would kick off a politically-charged year heading into the presidential election, which will pit Trump against one of a field of Democratic contenders, including Biden, who have repeatedly criticized Trump's conduct in office and promised to make it a key issue.

 

Trump's presidency has polarized the United States, dividing families and friends and making it more difficult for politicians in Washington to find middle ground as they try to confront challenges like the rise of China and climate change.

 

'ROGUE LEADER OF THE SENATE'

Pelosi, who angered Trump by leading the impeachment process in the House, accused McConnell of being a "rogue leader."

 

"I heard some of what Mitch McConnell said today and it reminded me that our founders, when they wrote the Constitution, they suspected that there could be a rogue president. I don’t think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time,” she said.

 

Pelosi said after Wednesday's vote that she would wait to name the Democratic House "managers," who will prosecute the case, until she knew more about the Senate trial procedures. Those comments were widely interpreted as an attempt to pressure Republicans into agreeing to Democratic demands.

 

Democrats want a "fair and speedy trial" that hears testimony from four high-ranking administration witnesses and allows senators to review some documents related to the case, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.

 

He said McConnell on Thursday "did not make one argument why the witnesses and documents should not be part of the trial."

 

Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry launched by Pelosi in September a "witch hunt."

 

He said the ball was now in the Senate's court.

 

"Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!" Trump wrote on Twitter. "If the Do Nothing Democrats decide, in their great wisdom, not to show up, they would lose by Default!"

 

Trump's political future now rests with McConnell, a self-proclaimed "Grim Reaper" who is widely known as a shrewd negotiator who plays hardball politics at a level unusual even by Washington standards.

 

On the surface, the 77-year-old six-term senator from Kentucky could not be more different from the president. The laconic McConnell eschews Twitter, sometimes sits silently listening in meetings, according to those who have attended, and can repel reporters' questions by refusing to utter a syllable.

 

Trump regularly telephones McConnell, according to a former aide to the senator.

 

For a graphic on Articles of Impeachment:

 

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/Articles of Impeachment.pdf

 

For a graphic on U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Full Impeachment Report:

https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/CRPT-116hrpt346.pdf

 

For a graphic on Impeachement inquiry against President Trump:

https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-TRUMP-WHISTLEBLOWER/0100B2EZ1MK/index.html

 

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Amanda Becker, Susan Heavey, and Lisa Lambert; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-20

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3 minutes ago, webfact said:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she will not send the case to the Senate until she gets a sense of the trial's parameters, comments seen as an effort to win concessions for Democrats

 

So Nancy is threatening to withhold her phony Articles of Impeachment from the Senate until she gets the trial that she wants? To clarify - She's withholding something that the House has passed In exchange for something that will incriminate her political enemy.

 

 Does this sound familiar to anybody???

8 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 

So Nancy is threatening to withhold her phony Articles of Impeachment from the Senate until she gets the trial that she wants? To clarify - She's withholding something that the House has passed In exchange for something that will incriminate her political enemy.

 

 Does this sound familiar to anybody???

So you acknowledge that testimonies from Pompeo, Mulvaney, Bolton, etc... would incriminate Trump. For once, we agree.

40 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 

So Nancy is threatening to withhold her phony Articles of Impeachment from the Senate until she gets the trial that she wants? To clarify - She's withholding something that the House has passed In exchange for something that will incriminate her political enemy.

 

 Does this sound familiar to anybody???

yes, very familiar - seen this several times before on TV - in comic shows

 

this whole process is weirder than weird

this is no trial its a political evaluation of what Trump has/has not done - farcical

 

leading senators shouting out in advance how the trial should be conducted and how

the conclusions should be

 

what a laugh

 

2 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 

So Nancy is threatening to withhold her phony Articles of Impeachment from the Senate until she gets the trial that she wants? To clarify - She's withholding something that the House has passed In exchange for something that will incriminate her political enemy.

 

 Does this sound familiar to anybody???

What's A little quid pro-quo among dems????? ????

Edited December 20, 20196 yr by Scott

Pelosi is without a doubt, totally corrupt to the bone and it's going to backfire on her and her party in Biblical proportions. 

 

MAGA 

12 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Pelosi is without a doubt, totally corrupt to the bone and it's going to backfire on her and her party in Biblical proportions. 

 

MAGA 

Boon Mee you are the reason Trump can claim:

Quote

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters,"

 

What is really toxic right now, is the fact that not one Republican even had the integrity to stand up and criticize Trump's attempt to sell out the US to a foreign power, and corrupt an election with extortion demands. Treasonous acts like this were punishable by death, in the past, and still are in some nations. Leningrad Lindsay would not even raise a whimper over this. The party is now bought and paid for. Nobody is willing to defy the overlord. 

2 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Pelosi is without a doubt, totally corrupt to the bone and it's going to backfire on her and her party in Biblical proportions. 

 

MAGA 

I disagree. She is much smarter and way ahead of Trump on ideas. She intimidates him, not the other way around. Kudos to her for standing up to the American constitution. 

It really doesn't matter, does it?

If he's innocent, he'll be freed on party lines.

If he's guilty, he'll be freed on party lines.

What's all the fuss?

"McConnell has already said he is working in tandem with the White House on trial preparations, drawing accusations from Democrats that he is ignoring his duty to consider the evidence in an impartial manner.

 

Representative Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, said on MSNBC that Democrats were concerned McConnell may not allow a full trial.

"It's very hard to believe that Mitch McConnell can raise his right hand and pledge to be impartial," Hoyer said."

 

 

Dems are so deluded with their perpetual outrage and hate, they don't even realise how ridiculous this sounds.  Saying you doubt someone's impartiality after the vote was completely along party lines.    With the exception of the only 3 Dems with an ounce of common sense and integrity, who will no doubt soon be drummed out for not living up to party standards.

16 minutes ago, Mick501 said:

 Saying you doubt someone's impartiality after the vote was completely along party lines.

The fault is not on the Dems, but rather the GOP in Congress who are afraid of standing up to a spiteful, vindictive little boy of age 73.  If they go against him he'll call them names, mock them and their families, and ruin their careers.  Yesterday he took shots at a dead congressman and his widow.

Senior senators saying their minds are already made up, before the case has even been passed on to them.  DT crying he is not allowed to have witnesses while it is his own henchman that is preventing witnesses.

 

But the real thing of note here is there is no contrition on the part of the perpetrator, and no acknowledgement of wrongdoing.  Even Bill Clinton apologized.  Meaning if DT was left to go on he would do this again.

 

As another poster expressed it:

 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

What is really toxic right now, is the fact that not one Republican even had the integrity to stand up and criticize Trump's attempt to sell out the US to a foreign power, and corrupt an election with extortion demands. Treasonous acts like this were punishable by death, in the past, and still are in some nations. Leningrad Lindsay would not even raise a whimper over this. The party is now bought and paid for. Nobody is willing to defy the overlord. 

 

The "dirt on Biden" issue is one thing, but the mention of CrowdStrike is the golden rope that leads to Putin, and this is where DT ties his own noose.  I'm all for delaying handing the impeachment over to the Senate, the longer we wait the better chance of someone slipping up and the Moscow connection being revealed.  Surely the Senate majority leader who delayed filling a Supreme Court seat for nearly a year understands this.

 

These are depressing times for Americans: their president and lead senator have been bought off by an adversarial foreign power; the president has all the members of his party in Congress staining their pants with his demands of allegiance, and will agree with him even when points to something white and says "this is black."  And then there is his loyal base who says "if he says it's black, then it's black."  The base is not about political issues, it's about him.  Bannon tried to sell "Trumpism" (as he called it) and running a candidate in a state election with it.  Failed.

MAGA, baby!

 

 

 

The posts build & build getting more & more ludicrous.....

 

I'm much happier if/when I stay away from the political threads....

Should not be a surprise really. The modern GOP has an aversion to fact and evidence.

 

Donald could indeed stand in 5th Avenue, shoot someone live on TV, and his followers would somehow make it all Hillary’s fault. 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump's political future now rests with McConnell,

This should be interesting.  The balance of power in the GOP has shifted dramatically from Trump to McConnell.  Mitch literally has Trump by the balls.  It's no longer the will of the people, but the will of Mitch.  If Mitch tells Trump to jump, Trump will ask "how high."  But what does Mitch McConnell really want?

 

I never believed that McConnell was a blind follower of Trump.  I don't think he even likes Trump very much.  He does appreciate the massive corporate tax cut and conservative judges.  But couldn't a President Pence deliver the same without the derange tweets and daily craziness?  Above all, Mitch wants to keep the Senate majority and he knows darn well what happened in the House during the 2018 mid terms.  The GOP got destroyed, largely because of Trump.   

 

Yes, everybody says the Senate will never convict Trump and I hear what Mitch is saying now to appease Trump and his base.  But I say we just don't know.  It's all up to Mitch McConnell.

22 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

This should be interesting.  The balance of power in the GOP has shifted dramatically from Trump to McConnell.  Mitch literally has Trump by the balls.

B@lls, what b@lls?!?!

9 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 

So Nancy is threatening to withhold her phony Articles of Impeachment from the Senate until she gets the trial that she wants? To clarify - She's withholding something that the House has passed In exchange for something that will incriminate her political enemy.

 

 Does this sound familiar to anybody???

Only if you are likening the US Senate as a foreign power ... no, I did not say controlled or strongly influenced by a foreign power ...

Just a footnote to history on faulting the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump as being political. Yes, impeachments are political events. Same as the two previous impeachments. Radical Republicans impeached A. Johnson (D) and the House Republican majority impeached W. J. Clinton (D), least we forget history. Charges and other circumstances not withstanding.

and Nancy Pelosi will go down in history as the most incompetent speaker of the house in American history... lol ... how dare you!!! lol

“I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That’s not my thing,” President Zelensky

During the interview in his office in Kyiv, the comedian-turned-president denied, as he has done in the past, that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold American aid to Ukraine for nearly two months in the context of a quid pro quo involving political favors...

https://time.com/5742108/ukraine-zelensky-interview-trump-putin-europe/

21 minutes ago, Tounge Thaied said:

“I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That’s not my thing,” President Zelensky

During the interview in his office in Kyiv, the comedian-turned-president denied, as he has done in the past, that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold American aid to Ukraine for nearly two months in the context of a quid pro quo involving political favors...

https://time.com/5742108/ukraine-zelensky-interview-trump-putin-europe/

So he did not say there was no QPQ, he said he never talked from a position of QPQ. Smart guy. 

17 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

What's A little quid pro-quo among dems????? ????

 

Shhhh We wouldn't dare speak of the dems right now. We have maybe half a dozen impeachment articles but not a single article about the democrats debates. As embarrassing as the debates are you would think we could get a chance to react and comment on them. It's like they are keeping it secret lest the dems message get out. 

 

Could we respectfully get even coverage on this website at some point? 

17 hours ago, Langsuan Man said:

Boon Mee you are the reason Trump can claim:

 

Quote wouldn't;t load right so used a screenshot

 

The 5th avenue thing only rings true because of how abysmally embarrassing the dem field is. You could run Pol Pot against them and his economic plans would...      actually be similar to the dems now that I think of it. 

 

 

Edited December 20, 20196 yr by Cryingdick

Pathetic.....

You do know that in the last 60 years, the Democrats have tried impeachment after the election of every president they didn't like - i.e. all the republican ones...

6 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

Quote wouldn't;t load right so used a screenshot

 

 

The 5th avenue thing only rings true because of how abysmally embarrassing the dem field is. You could run Pol Pot against them and his economic plans would...      actually be similar to the dems now that I think of it. 

 

 

Actually the 5th avenue statement was made before the 2016 election, long before the current  " dem field "  but those are facts something Trump foreign to his enablers 

 

 

Quote

On 23 January 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump caused controversy when he stated the following during a campaign rally in Iowa:

 

I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.

 

The comment was part of a larger point Trump was making about the loyalty of his voting base:

source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-fifth-avenue-comment/

On 12/20/2019 at 8:45 AM, spidermike007 said:

What is really toxic right now, is the fact that not one Republican even had the integrity to stand up and criticize Trump's attempt to sell out the US to a foreign power, and corrupt an election with extortion demands. Treasonous acts like this were punishable by death, in the past, and still are in some nations. Leningrad Lindsay would not even raise a whimper over this. The party is now bought and paid for. Nobody is willing to defy the overlord. 

But on the other hand. Democrats crossed the line and sided with the President. Now, doesn't that tell you something?

37 minutes ago, PhonThong said:

But on the other hand. Democrats crossed the line and sided with the President. Now, doesn't that tell you something?

Tells me he was impeached.

On 12/20/2019 at 5:16 AM, webfact said:

- The top Republican in the U.S. Senate on Thursday called on his fellow senators to correct what he called the "toxic" impeachment of President Donald Trump,

What better way than hold the trial with reliable first hand witnesses who are cowering in the White House and refusing to provide their ‘evidences’ to exonerate their overlord. The locked up transcripts will provide the proof to clear him. Hi Reps you scream, marched and yelled for a transparent due process hearing. Now you got it, why the procrastination and hesitation to agree to hold a fair and transparent trial in Congress. Too much guilt?  

1 hour ago, Sujo said:

Tells me he was impeached.

Not really. The process isn't finished until the articles for impeachment are delivered to the Senate. If Pelosi insist on holding on to them, then McConnell has the right to call for a mistrial.