As we reported earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the trial schedule and rules for the impeachment trial and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer flipped out.
After reading his resolution, it’s clear Sen. McConnell is hell-bent on making it much more difficult to get witnesses & documents and intent on rushing the trial through
On something as important as impeachment—Sen. McConnell’s resolution is nothing short of a national disgrace pic.twitter.com/hyDVTYqdC5
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 20, 2020
From Daily Wire:
Senator McConnell’s proposed rules depart dramatically from the Clinton precedent – in ways that are designed to prevent the Senate and the American people from learning the full truth about President Trump’s actions that warranted his impeachment. The McConnell rules don’t even allow the simple basic step of admitting the House record into advice at the trial.
Under this resolution, Senator McConnell is saying he doesn’t want to hear any existing evidence, and he doesn’t want to hear any new evidence. A trial with no evidence – no existing record, no witnesses, no documents – isn’t a trial at all. It’s a cover up, and the American people will see it for exactly what it is.
Furthermore, Senator McConnell’s resolution stipulates that key facts be delivered in the wee hours of the night simply because he doesn’t want the American people to hear them. Any senator that votes for the McConnell resolution will be voting to hide information and evidence from the American people.
Schumer says he will try to enter amendments to change the resolution, “to address the many flaws in this deeply unfair proposal and to subpoena the witnesses and documents we have requested.”
Schumer accuses McConnell of making it more difficult to get witnesses and documents. You mean the very witnesses and documents you didn’t even take the time to get in the House? If they were so important, why didn’t you do it then? And if your case has “overwhelming evidence,” why do you need them now?
Neither Schumer or the House Democrats have any credibility when it comes to talking about witnesses, especially when they didn’t allow the President fact witnesses during the House proceeding.
What you’re really upset about, Schumer, is that you don’t get to have a railroaded event like you had in the House, now that McConnell has control. Can we say your tears are delicious or would that be petty?
What Schumer doesn’t like is that the rules permit a preview of the witnesses to determine if they are relevant so Democrats just wouldn’t get to put on people to smear the President like they did in the House when they had no relevant factual information. He’s also disturbed about testimony being in the “wee hours of the night.” Why should that matter to him in a somber serious proceeding? Unless what it’s about is trying to make it a political weapon against the President on television during prime time viewing hours?
Schumer’s arguments are silly because it’s supposed to be the role of the House managers to be presenting the evidence. So to suggest that this doesn’t allow them to present evidence is just false, they’re free to present whatever evidence they have in the time frame given.
But I would agree that the American people will see that it is a “trial with no evidence” and “will see it for exactly what it is.” And Democrats for who they are.
Via RedState
