Tag: GOP senate

George Conway and Neal Katyal educate Mitch McConnell on how to hold a real impeachment trial — and explain why John Bolton must testify

AlterNet logoAttorneys George Conway and Neal Katyal have written an editorial for the New York Times in which they call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to stop trying to protect President Donald Trump and hold a real impeachment trial in the Senate.

In particular, the editorial hammers McConnell for declaring that there’s no chance Trump will be removed from office before hearing former national security adviser John Bolton’s testimony.

“Remember that the diplomat Fiona Hill testified at the House impeachment hearings that Mr. Bolton called the pressuring of Ukraine by the administration a ‘drug deal’ and said he wanted no part of it,” they write. “Mr. Bolton himself has said that he possesses new information that has not been revealed. He even gave a speech saying that some of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy decisions were made in his self-interest, not in the interest of the American people.” Continue reading.

GOP senators call on Trump to de-escalate tensions with Iran

The Hill logoRepublican senators are calling for the Trump administration to ratchet down tensions with Iran in the wake of missile attacks Tuesday night on two Iraqi bases that house U.S. personnel.

The public signaling from GOP lawmakers comes as they await Trump’s reactions to the strikes.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a top ally of Trump’s in the Senate, said in a string of tweets that “retaliation for the sake of retaliation is not necessary at this time.” Continue reading.

Legal, security experts blast Rubio’s refusal to subpoena Bolton for Trump impeachment trial: ‘Utterly wrong and utterly ahistorical’

AlterNet logoAlthough former National Security Adviser John Bolton did not testify during House Democrats’ recent impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, he said in an official statement on Monday that he is “prepared to testify” during Trump’s Senate trial if subpoenaed. But Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, in response, is saying that he will not vote in favor of subpoenaing Bolton — and attorney Jerry Lambe, in a January 6 article for Law & Crime, notes that a long list of legal and security experts as well as some journalists are lambasting Rubio for his absurd position.

On Twitter, Rubio posted, “The testimony & evidence considered in a Senate impeachment trial should be the same testimony & evidence the House relied upon when they passed the Articles of Impeachment. Our job is to vote on what the House passed, not to conduct an open ended inquiry.”

Paul Rosenzweig, former deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted, “Marco, that’s both utterly wrong and utterly ahistorical. In fact, to the contrary, in every impeachment since the founding, the Senate has taken some evidence.” Continue reading.

Political fallout from Soleimani could be biggest for Senate

Without Pompeo, Senate seat in Kansas could be vulnerable for GOP

President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, and it was rightfully treated as a big deal. But as with breaking news of any size and scope, it’s best to pause before determining the political fallout.

While most of the subsequent conversation revolves around potential future military conflict, retaliatory attacks, the president’s standing, the reaction from Democrats and the role of Congress in the use of force, the biggest impact could actually be in the battle for the Senate majority.

Obviously, the situation is still developing, but here are some initial thoughts on the political ramifications of Trump’s decision. Continue reading.

McConnell: Democrats Can’t Debate Iran Strike Because They Weren’t Briefed

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that Democrats should not be raising concerns after Donald Trump ordered an attack that killed a top Iranian general.

McConnell left out the fact that Democratic leaders were not given a customary briefing on the attack on Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani before the operation was carried out — with Trump suggesting on Twitter that he didn’t brief Democrats because he does not trust them.

“Although I anticipate and welcome a debate about America’s interest in foreign policy in the Middle East, I recommend that all senators wait to review the facts and hear from the administration before passing much public judgement on this operation and its potential consequences,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. Continue reading.

Least deliberative Senate faces weighty task of holding Trump’s impeachment trial

Washington Post logoThe Senate tasked with holding President Trump’s impeachment trial would be unrecognizable to most of its predecessors.

It’s particularly true for those who ran the last trial 21 years ago, a GOP-led Senate that logged almost 1,200 hours in session. By the end of 1999, senators had cast more than 350 votes on legislation and ushered into existence 170 laws, signed by a president after they tried and failed to evict him from office. It took more than 15,000 pages to cover that year’s Senate work in the Congressional Record.

The current Senate logged almost 230 fewer hours of floor time in 2019, voting just 108 times on actual legislation. And through the first 11 months of last year, the Senate’s official footprint covered just 6,779 pages in the Congressional Record. Continue reading.

Figures to watch as White House mounts impeachment defense

The Hill logoSpeculation is increasing about the defense team being assembled by the White House as President Trump stares down an impeachment trial in the GOP-controlled Senate. 

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-Calif.) decision to delay transmitting the articles of impeachment has created uncertainty around the contours and timing of the trial, it’s still widely expected the Senate will begin the proceedings in January.

The Trump administration has disclosed very little about its forthcoming defense apart from signaling that White House counsel Pat Cipollone will play a significant role, but the president is considering tapping others to play a part in the trial. Continue reading

McConnell Saved Big Money For Big Coal — And Let Us Pay Instead

Kentucky coal miners—along with the rest of us—will be paying the price to keep the government running next year. And we can thank Kentucky’s senior senator, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for the sellout.

Buried in the giant $1.4 trillion government spending package that McConnell ushered through the Senate last week was a relatively modest $15 billion, 30-year payout to sustain the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund—a boon to the majority leader’s home state coal miners.  As many as one in five coal miners suffer from black lung.

But here’s the kicker: What McConnell had removed from the must-pass funding legislation. In order to keep the government running, McConnell threw out provisions that would have forced coal companies to commit to higher payments toward the health-care costs of their employees and retirees, nixing requirements to extend the commitment period and modestly increase the tax on coal mining companies that are supposed to support the trust fund. Continue reading

House Democrats Passed Almost 600 Bills In 2019

For months, Donald Trump has claimed repeatedly that the House majority is a bunch of “Do Nothing Democrats,” too focused on impeachment to do anything else. But at the end of their first year back in power, the numbers tell the opposite story.

Democrats gained 41 seats in the 2018 midterm elections and won a majority, promising action and oversight. Since January, the House of Representatives has passed 591 bills and resolutions, though just 94 have made it through the Senate.

Almost all of these were passed before the House impeached Trump last week. Continue reading

Former GOP senator warns Republicans they must ‘put country over party’ — ‘before it’s too late’

AlterNet logoWhen Arizona Republican Jeff Flake was serving in the U.S. Senate, he could be critical of President Donald Trump at times yet wasn’t a full-fledged Never Trump conservative like Washington Post columnist Max Boot, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough or GOP strategists Rick Wilson and Ana Navarro. And in an op-ed for the Washington Post, he addresses his former colleagues and urges them to “put country over party” when the time comes to serve as jurors in President Donald Trump’s Senate trial.

With Trump having been indicted on two articles of impeachment by the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can send them to the Senate for a trial —although she is holding onto them for now over concerns that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no intention of honestly evaluating the articles.

Flake tells Republicans he used to serve with in the Senate, “I don’t envy you…. President Trump is on trial. But in a very real sense, so are you. And so is the political party to which we belong.” Continue reading