ADVERTISEMENT

Senate Leaders Extend Impasse on Trump Impeachment Trial

McConnell and Schumer Extend Impasse on Senate Impeachment Trial

(Bloomberg) -- Congress is set to return to Washington next week with leaders still at a stalemate on the terms for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

Although most lawmakers remained on break, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer began the congressional year on Friday addressing a mostly empty chamber to trade accusations of partisanship and breaking with historical precedent.

Senate Leaders Extend Impasse on Trump Impeachment Trial

McConnell stuck to his demand that senators agree to basic terms to get a trial underway, but delay the tough decisions about new witnesses for weeks -- an approach that gives him time to pressure Republicans to stick together in opposing new testimony. Such a two-step approach was used during the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Schumer slammed that as a “poorly disguised trap,” and accused McConnell of siding with a president who blocked the witnesses and documents during the House’s investigation of allegations the president coerced Ukraine’s president to probe former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

“Leader McConnell reminds us today and in previous days that rather than acting like a judge and a juror, he intends to act as the executioner of a fair trial,” Schumer said in his first floor speech of 2020.

The two leaders set a sharply partisan tone for Congress in a year that will be bookended by an escalating conflict with Iran and a presidential election. McConnell left the Capitol without meeting with Schumer, dashing any expectations that the leaders would work out an agreement on the ground rules for the impeachment trial before senators return to work on Monday.

Senate Leaders Extend Impasse on Trump Impeachment Trial

McConnell scoffed at the suggestion from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she will delay sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, and said he is more than content to continue with normal Senate business in the meantime. He said any attempt by Democrats to dictate the terms of the Senate trial is “obviously a nonstarter.”

The Democrat-led House impeached Trump last month on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress. Every House Republican voted against both articles of impeachment.

Trump Acquittal

There was no immediate indication that the U.S. airstrike that killed a top Iranian general in Iraq -- or the potential for retaliation -- was altering the debate on impeachment.

Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia said that the airstrike shouldn’t have an impact on the impeachment proceedings, even if the action might ultimately “unleash the dogs of war.”

“The bigger concern is: where does this lead?” Connolly said of the airstrike. “How does this unravel?”

Republican Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Trump ally, said the escalating tensions with Iran should serve as a reminder of “more important priorities” for lawmakers than impeachment.

McConnell has been charting the course for a quick trial to acquit Trump, even declaring that he isn’t an impartial juror and that he is coordinating his strategy with the White House. McConnell has said there is no chance that the president would be convicted and removed from office at the trial’s conclusion. Conviction would require 67 Senate votes.

Pelosi responded to McConnell’s floor speech Friday by saying the House was able to “obtain compelling evidence of impeachable conduct,” despite the White House’s stonewalling.

“Today, Leader McConnell made clear that he will feebly comply with President Trump’s cover-up of his abuses of power and be an accomplice to that cover-up,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The GOP Senate must immediately proceed in a manner worthy of the Constitution and in light of the gravity of the President’s unprecedented abuses.”

Only four GOP senators would need to side with Democrats to force more evidence or witnesses in the trial, but no Republican so far has indicated they would do so. Two moderate Republicans who potentially could side with Democrats on procedural votes -- Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine -- recently said they were uncomfortable with McConnell’s declaration that he isn’t an impartial actor.

Even though senators traditionally take an oath of impartiality at the beginning of an impeachment trial, McConnell on Friday pushed back on the suggestion that senators should be held to the same standard as jurors in a court case.

“All of us would be disqualified” as jurors in a normal trial, McConnell said. “This is a political body. We do not stand apart from the issues of the day.”

‘Partisan Passions’

While criticizing the House’s inquiry as rushed and unfair, McConnell said it is the unique character of the Senate as a chamber that makes it the appropriate place for an impeachment trial.

”We exist because the founders wanted an institution that could stop momentary hysterias and partisan passions from damaging our republic,” McConnell said. “An institution that could be thoughtful, be sober, and take the long view and that is why the Constitution puts the impeachment trial in this place.”

McConnell has ripped Schumer’s call for testimony from four witnesses, including acting White House chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national Security Adviser John Bolton, as a “fishing expedition.”

Schumer cited several recent reports to bolster his demands for additional testimony, including a trove of administration emails that show officials questioned the legality of delaying aid to Ukraine. The website Just Security, operated out of the New York University School of Law, said the unredacted emails released as part of a lawsuit show Pentagon officials had growing concerns about the Trump’s hold on Ukraine aid.

--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Billy House.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.