On impeachment trial, Democrats are looking for leverage to pressure Mitch McConnell
House Democrats want Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a “fair” impeachment trial and are exerting political pressure they hope will have ripple effects in 2020, including on the Kentucky Republican’s reelection race.
And the day after voting to impeach President Donald Trump in the House, Democrats said they might have some leverage in an emerging strategy to delay the transmission of the two approved articles of impeachment to the Senate.
They want McConnell to agree to a “fair process” with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Democrats do not have consensus, however, on what a “fair process” means beyond forcing McConnell to allow certain witnesses to testify — a predetermined framework McConnell has so far rejected.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who started floating the strategy of holding back articles of impeachment last week as a way to extract concessions from McConnell, told McClatchy Thursday that one compromise could be that both parties agree to defer to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on all the decisions about witnesses.
Though Senators can override Roberts’ decisions on witness testimony with a simple majority vote, Van Hollen said there would need to be an “agreement in advance that we would allow the chief justice to make these decisions and not overrule the chief justice.”
The Constitution requires the chief justice to preside over a Senate trial that follows a House vote to impeach the president.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, another Maryland Democrat and a former professor of constitutional law, suggested Democrats might be satisfied simply by McConnell publicly pledging he would be a fair arbiter of impeachment proceedings in the Senate.
“The leadership of the Senate must tell the country that they are committed to a fair trial, based on objective consideration of the facts and the evidence,” Raskin said.
This would require McConnell to go back on previous statements that he has no interest in being an impartial juror and every intention of coordinating with White House attorneys.
But McConnell has made it clear he has no plans to budge from his current stance and is not interested in ceding power to the chief justice, repeatedly threatening to retreat to his side of the aisle to set the ground rules for a trial if Democrats won’t relent in their demands.
On Thursday, he delivered a lengthy, scathing speech from the Senate floor condemning Democrats for a “slapdash” impeachment inquiry into Trump’s alleged withholding of foreign aid to Ukraine unless the foreign government launched an investigation into Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
“If the Senate blesses this, if the nation accepts it, presidential impeachments may cease being once-in-a-generation events and become a constant part of the political background noise,” he said.
He also accused House Democrats of acting out of personal malice rather than reason. “The [impeachment] vote did not reflect what had been proven. It only reflects how they feel about the president.”
McConnell later told told reporters that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to withhold impeachment articles until some later date also would not change his calculus.
“If she thinks her case is so weak she doesn’t want to send it over, throw me into that briar patch,” he quipped.
While congressional Democrats brainstorm ways to undermine McConnell on Capitol Hill, Democratic operatives and political candidates are exploring how they can use McConnell’s words against him and fellow Republicans on the campaign trail.
After McConnell told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week that he was working in concert with White House attorneys on the parameters for a Senate impeachment trial, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sprang to action.
The official fundraising arm for Senate Democrats put up a Facebook ad asking for donations to fight McConnell’s efforts to “SHUT OUT Democrats from impeachment.”
Lauren Passalacqua, a DSCC spokeswoman, put out a statement: “McConnell’s admission means every Republican senator is disrespecting the rule of law and enabling a cover-up.”
Senate Majority PAC, which is dedicated to major media ad buys promoting Democratic Senate candidates, also told McClatchy the group is not ruling out making expenditures in the new year that would tie Republican incumbents to McConnell’s remarks on impartiality, including “using their own words against them.”
But to some extent, Democrats are taking a gamble on how much impeachment is resonating in battleground states for control of the Senate.
In interviews on Capitol Hill this week with vulnerable GOP Sens. Tom Tillis of North Carolina, Martha McSally of Arizona and Joni Ernst of Iowa, each denied having heard anything negative back home or on the campaign trail about McConnell’s posture on impeachment. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican facing a tough reelection fight, declined to comment.
In Kentucky, McConnell’s well-funded Democratic challenger Amy McGrath has hesitated to speak at length about impeachment specifically but is now campaigning off the majority leader’s comments.
“Mitch McConnell just indicated he is going to renege on his Constitutional duty,” McGrath, a veteran, said in a recent tweet. “I put my life on the line for the Constitution... in three combat tours. I will continue to defend it in the Senate, but I have to have your help to get there.”
McConnell’s team said McGrath was out of touch with Kentucky voters on impeachment.
“Amy McGrath is quick to take action on what Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Chuck Schumer are enamored with but if she took a look around Kentucky she would see people are outraged by their shameful impeachment proceeding,” Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager, said in a statement to McClatchy.
Over the past year, McConnell has almost appeared to enjoy Democratic criticisms, taking it as a badge of honor that he is known as the “Grim Reaper” presiding over a “Legislative Graveyard” of bills passed by the Democratic-controlled House that will never come to the floor of the Republican Senate.
Van Hollen, a former chairman of the DSCC, argued that the lack of impartiality in a Senate impeachment trial could actually leave voters with a more negative perception of McConnell than his track record of holding up legislation.
“It’s one thing for him to boast about burying House bills. It’s another thing for him to brag about rigging a trial,” said Van Hollen. “I think everybody recognizes that it crosses the line.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 4:42 PM with the headline "On impeachment trial, Democrats are looking for leverage to pressure Mitch McConnell."
