Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that House Democrats achieved a “political outcome” with their impeachment of President Trump, charging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with leading the nation down a dangerous path as she sends the articles to the upper chamber.
He noted other impeachment inquiries into past presidents took more than a year, but Mrs. Pelosi’s chamber took only 12 weeks to put their articles of impeachment together.
“When people are serious about compiling evidence and proving a case, these things take time. That’s not what happened this time,” Mr. McConnell said.
“This isn’t really about Ukraine policy or military assistance money. It can’t be because for one thing, prominent Democrats were promising to impeach President Trump years before,” the Kentucky Republican added, noting House Democrats have been calling for impeachment since Mr. Trump’s inauguration day in 2017.
House Democrats impeached the president on Dec. 18, charging Mr. Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, stemming from a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president where Mr. Trump requested a probe into a political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
It was the first impeachment in the nation’s history to lack bipartisan support.
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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though, said the Senate must further explore the House’s case, hearing from more witnesses and seeking other documents during the trial.
Republicans have refused to agree to pretrial demands posed by Democrats to have more witnesses. Instead, they plan to follow the trial precedent set by President Clinton’s hearing in 1999 where the chamber heard from House managers presenting the case against the president, then the president’s legal team’s response before the issue of witnesses was debated.
“Each day that goes by the case for witnesses and documents gains momentum,” the New York Democrat said Wednesday.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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