Tag: Sen. McConnell

‘Seriously corrupt’: Greenville SC resident pens letter to the editor demanding Lindsey Graham ‘recuse’ himself from impeachment after showing ‘disheartening level of cynicism’

AlterNet logoSouth Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has flaunted the fact that he has no desire to seriously evaluate the evidence against President Donald Trump when an impeachment trial takes place in the U.S. Senate. And a letter pushed in South Carolina’s Greenville News asserts that Graham and McConnell should both recuse themselves from the trial.

“Recent statements from U.S. senators have shown a disheartening level of cynicism never before displayed by Congress members involved in impeachment proceedings,” Greenville, South Carolina resident William Byars writes. “Both Senate leader Mitch McConnell and SC Sen. Lindsey Graham have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in even attempting impartiality in the Senate impeachment trial.”

Byars goes on to say, “Openly bragging about refusing to do one’s best to be impartial toward such a solemn responsibility is a display of a seriously corrupt attitude about governing. This behavior insults jurors throughout our court systems, on whom we depend to uphold the mutual trust that underpins our society.” Continue reading

What’s Mitch McConnell’s endgame in shaping the Senate impeachment trial to benefit Trump?

Washington Post logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will run the Senate impeachment trial “in total coordination” with the White House, which means he’ll probably frame it in a way that benefits President Trump. When asked why, he says the answer is obvious: because everyone knows Trump’s going to be acquitted anyway by the Republican-controlled Senate, so why bother?

“We all know how this is going to end,” McConnell said on “Fox and Friends” last week.

The limited history of Senate impeachment trials — there has been only one in the modern era — doesn’t give us much insight into whether this is normal. Continue reading

Mitch McConnell’s days of dastardly deeds going unrecognized are over

AlterNet logoThe days of Moscow Mitch McConnell quietly destroying the institutions of government behind the scenes are over, it seems. He’s not getting a pass from anyone these days, and it’s about damned time. His declaration that he will work with the White House—the defendant—to make sure that Donald Trump is acquitted has finally done the trick.

Here’s Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor and regular cable news guest:

And here’s Newsweek, amplifying that tweet. There’s little question now that the hearing McConnell and Trump are plotting will be fair and impartial, or that these two have any intention of making it so. They’re not even bothering to pretend otherwise at this point, but for once the traditional media is calling them on it. Not universally and not frequently enough, but it’s happening.

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

Nancy Pelosi delivers brutal takedown after McConnell screed: ‘Frankly, I don’t care what the Republicans say’

AlterNet logoHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on Thursday that she would name managers to take the impeachment of president Donald Trump to the Senate after Republicans set the ground rules for a trial.

In a rant on the Senate floor earlier on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) accused Democrats of undermining the Constitution by impeaching Trump. He gave no indication that Republicans are backing down from their threat not to allow witnesses in Trump’s Senate trial.

Pelosi kicked off her weekly press conference by observing that she and other Democrats have a “spring” in their step after the impeachment vote. Continue reading

Democratic Representative Calls on McConnell to Recuse Himself and Threatens Mistrial

Representative Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) has called on Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to recuse himself from the impending impeachment trial over his admission that he would not be an “impartial juror” and his claim that the trial was politically motivated.

“I’m not an impartial juror,” McConnell told CNN on Tuesday. “This is a political process. There is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision.”

Speier responded by arguing that McConnell’s statement should disqualify him from participating in the impeachment trial. Continue reading

Toxic McConnell-Schumer relationship strains impeachment talks

The Hill logoThe toxic relationship between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has left senators pessimistic about reaching a deal to set the rules of President Trump’s impeachment trial.

The leaders already have scars from the battles over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2018, efforts to repeal ObamaCare in 2017 and McConnell’s refusal to hold a vote on former President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, among other controversies.

So perhaps it should not be surprising that talks on rules for the trial are off to a rocky start. Continue reading

McConnell shoots down Schumer’s offer on Senate impeachment trial rules

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday tore into an initial offer from Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on impeachment trial rules.

McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, described the proposal from the Democratic leader as “dead wrong” and warned that it “could set a nightmarish precedent for our institution.”

“The Senate Democratic leader would apparently like our chamber to do House Democrats’ homework for them. He wants to volunteer the Senate’s time and energy on a fishing expedition,” McConnell said.

Continue reading

McConnell takes heat from all sides on impeachment

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is under pressure from Senate Democrats, House Republicans and President Trump when it comes to the fraught impeachment trial that is about to take over life in the Senate.

Democrats are making it crystal clear they’ll cast McConnell as a Trump stooge if he doesn’t run what they consider to be a fair trial. House Republicans, frustrated they didn’t get to call former Vice President Joe Biden or the anonymous whistleblower as witnesses, are demanding that McConnell put them in the hot seat.

And the GOP leader, who himself is up for reelection next year, is under the wary eyes of Trump and his own Senate caucus. Any false steps are bound to bring the heat — and even more pressure for the Senate veteran.

Continue reading

Secretary Chao Under Scrutiny For Grants To Husband McConnell’s Home State

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) examination has raised serious concerns about the process by which Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao determined project grant recipients, finding that it did not treat all applicants with “the assurance of fairness.”

One of the beneficiaries of that process was Boone County, Kentucky — a jurisdiction represented by Chao’s husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Politico reported on Tuesday that a $67.4 million grant application for Boone was “initially flagged by professional staff as incomplete.” After the Department of Transportation gave Boone and a minority of the other incomplete applicants a second chance to fix their submission, Chao selected it as among the 26 grant winners from an initial pool of 258 applicants. Continue reading