Mitch McConnell might throw Trump under the bus
Ever since Nancy Pelosi first announced the launching of an impeachment inquiry, many of us jumped forward in time to the Senate trial that would follow an impeachment vote in the House, wondering out loud whether Mitch McConnell would block Donald Trump’s trial from ever taking place. I thought for sure McConnell would pull a Merrick Garland stunt and insist that the trial couldn’t take place within a year of the presidential election, and then perhaps hold a procedural vote to back up his would-be scam.
It turns out, however, that McConnell has no choice but to allow the trial to commence, should the House vote to impeach the president — and it looks like Nancy Pelosi has whipped enough votes to make it all but certain that Donald Trump will become only the third president in history to be impeached by the House, and the third to be tried in the Senate per the language of Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution.
During an interview with CNBC on Monday, McConnell confirmed that he wouldn’t pull any stunts to obstruct a trial in the Senate — neither the Senate rules nor the partisan split would allow for such a thing.
“I would have no choice but to take it up,” McConnell said. “How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment.”
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, whose first-hand experience in the Senate and knowledge of its functioning is well known, suggested that McConnell is panicking about 2020. “This is a very, very big deal,” O’Donnell wrote on Twitter. “First, McConnell agrees with Schumer’s unanimous consent request for whistleblower documents and now this. McConnell is doing exactly what he should be doing if he thinks he might need a different nominee for president.”
The process itself, in fact, could push Trump to up and quit before the trial ever begins. (There’s another reason he should resign, coming up presently.) This is a man who’s taken extraordinary steps to make sure that Congress and the public never see his tax returns or financial records. There’s perhaps an entire iceberg under the surface, too, composed of dark secrets we don’t even know about at this point.
All of it could be trotted out by House managers back-to-back — a virtual highlight reel of Trump’s dirtiest crapola, along with supporting evidence and witness testimony.
Given Trump’s obsessive desire to guard his own copious ass by obstructing literally all congressional subpoenas, it wouldn’t shock me if Trump decided he’d rather quit than have his tax returns and other documents exposed like dick-pics on TMZ.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/mitch-mcconnell-might-throw-trump-under-the-bus/