How do you know when you have Senate Majority Leader over a barrel? When he starts accusing you of "shameless game-playing," as he did of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon. “The House Democrats’ turn is over," McConnell said, complaining about Pelosi’s refusal to transmit Trump’s impeachment articles to the upper chamber. "The Senate has made its decision. There will be no haggling with the House over Senate procedure." McConnell later tweeted a similar sentiment from his Twitter account.
Wow, seems like McConnell's pretty desperate to get those articles now. Remember in December when he rather smugly declared "fine with me" after Pelosi announced she wouldn't immediately transmit the articles? Well, McConnell's antsy enough to get those articles now that Senate Republicans started pushing out quotes from congressional Democrats who signaled their interest in the articles' transmission too. Gee, Mitch, what's the hurry? Thought everything was just "fine."
The hurry is Trump's desperation to be acquitted. The hurry is all the new evidence coming to light that will make Senate Republicans' sham trial so much more obvious to the public. The hurry is Pelosi's strategy working just right—give the articles some time to breathe and more evidence of Trump's guilt will surface. Sure enough, former national security adviser John Bolton said he would testify in a Senate trial if subpoenaed, new emails emerged in fresh reporting from Just Security revealing Trump's direct role in ordering a hold on Ukraine security assistance, and a federal judge ruled that Giuliani associate Lev Parnas could start sharing new evidence with the House Intelligence Committee. Senate Republicans are suddenly feeling anxious because every day that passes could potentially produce another bombshell that will make their sham trial even more ridiculous.
"Because of [Pelosi's] action, we've had a very public discussion throughout the country about what constitutes a fair trial and the fact that witnesses and documents are essential to that fair trial," Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Rachel Maddow Wednesday night on MSNBC. Had Pelosi relented right away, Van Hollen added, "I don't think we would have seen that level of attention."
Sure wouldn't have. McConnell would have just plowed ahead with his rigged trial before the public had so much as taken a breath in the new year. Now he says he has the votes to proceed with his charade, but those votes aren't ironclad and everyday raises the specter of new pressure points that make some GOP senators more squeamish. Whatever McConnell thought he might get by accusing Pelosi of "game-playing," Pelosi shut it down late Wednesday.
When asked by a reporter whether she would transmit the articles anytime soon, Pelosi shot back, “Do you listen when I speak? I said when we saw what the arena is that we would be sending members in, then we would send over the articles,” Pelosi explained, reiterating the same point she originally made in December. “We haven’t seen that, so I don’t know how many more times I have to say that and how many times you want to ask it."
Pelosi may have been talking to a reporter, but her response sounded more like a “read my lips” missive to McConnell.
