Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to acquit President Trump in the Senate should the House of Representatives move on impeachment.
CNN reports that two Republican Senators — one being John Cornyn of Texas, the other anonymous — have said McConnell will push for a vote to acquit the president rather than one to simply dismiss the charges.
McConnell is reportedly seeking to vote on acquittal to clear President Trump of charges brought against him by the House Democrats — 67 votes are required for conviction — rather than “simply rely[ing] on a 51-vote threshold procedural motion to dismiss the hotly disputed case.”
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The Republican senator himself has hinted this might be the approach he goes with.
“It could go down the path of calling witnesses and basically having another trial or it could decide — and again, 51 members could make that decision — that they’ve heard enough and believe they know what would happen and could move to vote on the two articles of impeachment,” he said.
He emphasized that no final decisions have been made yet. The notion that an acquittal could be forthcoming, however, makes the entire effort to remove President Trump dead on arrival.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell will move to acquit President Trump if he's impeached, not merely dismiss charges, according to two Republican senators.
“It would be irresponsible and it would send the wrong message to this President,” @RepSwalwell says. https://t.co/W2uzv77Ain pic.twitter.com/tK8vJtZSWT
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) December 12, 2019
Bursting Nancy’s Bubble
Imagine going through with this entire impeachment sham, losing public support, and boosting President Trump’s poll numbers in the process, only to have McConnell squash the whole affair the moment it arrives in the Senate.
That’s assuming it even gets that far.
The Washington Post is reporting that House Democrats are already bracing for some defections from moderate party members seeking re-election in districts that President Trump won in 2016.
“Lawmakers and senior aides are privately predicting they will lose more than the two Democrats who opposed the impeachment inquiry rules package in late September,” the Post writes, citing multiple anonymous sources.
Democrats could afford to lose 17 votes and still win enough votes to send the impeachment to the Senate for a trial. One of the sources indicates that as many as 6 could defect, while the other source said the number might be higher.
#NEW: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to hold a final vote to acquit President Trump, should he be impeached, when a majority of senators believe his trial has run its course instead of holding a vote on dismissing the articles of impeachment. (per @CNN)
— Jennifer Franco (@jennfranconews) December 12, 2019
Backfiring on Democrats
Democrat congressman Jeff Van Drew warned last month that his colleagues were privately concerned over impeachment proceedings and simply want to “move on.”
Recent polls showing the president surging in battleground states as a direct result of the impeachment hearings are likely making them even more apprehensive.
There is *bipartisan* opposition to Pelosi and Schiff’s impeachment charade.
Even Democrat Rep. Jeff Van Drew says that it is “fracturing the nation.”#StopTheMadness pic.twitter.com/0jydXLJxjX
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) November 17, 2019
McConnell’s potential effort to simply acquit the President is in defiance of Rep. Maxine Waters’s demands that he “better not” proceed without thoroughly considering the Democrat’s arguments.
“The American people want to have the Senate do what the Constitution says they must do and hold a trial,” Waters alleged. “They are acting as the jury, should be acting as the jury. We’ll have information to put before them and they better not try to sweep it under the rug.”
McConnell doesn’t seem fazed.
Cross posted at the Mental Recession
