Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would have happily considered finding Trump Guilty, were it Not for Mitch McConnell.
“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the Attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6”, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday, shortly after the Majority of his Republican Caucus Voted against Convicting Trump in his Second Impeachment Trial.
“No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”, he said. “This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by the outgoing president,” McConnell said later, “who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.” “I’ve made my view of this episode very plain,” McConnell said. “But our system of government gave the Senate a specific task,” he continued. “The Constitution gives us a particular role.”
McConnell would have been Happy to “have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge,” he said, were it Not for One Sad Problem. “In this case, the question is moot because former president Trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction,” he said, since Trump was no longer in office. He was when impeached, yes, but “not when the House chose to deliver the papers” Conveying the Impeachment to the Senate.
The Senate Trial occurred after Trump Left Office solely because McConnell, who in Mid-January was the Senate Majority Leader, decided that it should. The House Impeached Trump on Jan. 13th. On that day, McConnell released a Statement: “The Senate process will now begin at our first regular meeting following receipt of the article from the House,” he said, meaning when the Senate was back in Session Jan. 19th. He’d been asked to bring the Senate back Earlier by then, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), but Declined.
His statement Continued, there wasn’t enough Time anyway. “The Senate has held three presidential impeachment trials. They have lasted 83 days, 37 days, and 21 days respectively,” it read. “Even if the Senate process were to begin this week and move promptly, no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump had left office.”
As it happened, the Trial began Tuesday and Concluded Saturday. A Trial which began Jan. 15th could have Finished Jan. 19th. Of course, McConnell would have still been in the Majority for that Period, so the End of the Trial could easily have been Pushed until Trump had Left Office anyway.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA, 12th District), after Trump’s Acquittal, said: “Mitch McConnell, who, when this distinguished group of House managers were gathered on Jan. 15 to deliver the articles of impeachment could not — were told it could not be received because Mitch McConnell had shut down the Senate and was going to keep it shut down until the inauguration,” she said, clearly Angry. “So for him to get up there and make this indictment against the president and then say, but I can’t vote for it because it’s after the fact — the fact that he established that it could not be delivered before the inauguration.”
Her Citation of Jan. 15th as the Date that House Democrats were Prepared to begin itself doesn’t Match the Historical Record, for on that day, She told Reporters that the Impeachment Team was still “working on taking this to trial.”
Nonetheless, she criticized McConnell for having “created the situation where it could not have been heard before the 20th or even begun before the 20th in the Senate.” She also took Issue with his Framing that the House “chose” Not to Send the Impeachment Papers over while Trump was President: “No, we didn’t choose. You chose not to receive it.”
She echoed the Sentiment of many Legal Observers that Trump’s having Left Office wasn’t an Impediment to his beingCconvicted in a Senate Trial anyway. “It was not the reason that he voted the way he did,” she said of Trump’s current Position, “it was the excuse that he used.”
It was the Excuse that many Republicans used, in fact, an Excuse nurtured by the Leader of their Caucus. He told them to Vote their Consciences instead of Twisting Arms to ensure Trump’s Acquittal. But he also built a Spacious, Well-Lit escape Route for them to Use if they Chose.
When the Constitution was being written, a President was for Life, as Term Limits came later, which is part of why we need a Upodate to the Impeachment Law. It should say if a Preisent is Charged while in Office but Tried after they Leave office, then the Senate only Votes on whether they can Hold Public Office in the Future, bassed on the Reasons for Impeachment.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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