We’ll listen to the opening arguments by the House prosecutors and we’ll listen to
the president’s lawyers respond and then we’ll have to make a decision about the
way forward.
And everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with the White House counsel.
There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle
this to the extent that we can.
We don’t have the kind of ball control on this that a typical issue, for example, that
comes over from the House, if I don’t like it, we don’t take it up.
We have no choice but to take it up, but we’ll be working through this process hopefully
in a fairly short period of time, in total coordination with the White House counsel’s
office and the people representing the president in the well of the Senate.
Well exactly how we go forward, I’m gonna coordinate with the president’s lawyers,
so there won’t be any difference between us in how to do this.
This is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitting publicly that he’s now coordinating
with Trump on his own impeachment trial.
Just to be clear, Senators are supposed to act as jurors in impeachment trials.
They’re not even supposed to comment on the trial as long as it’s ongoing or do
anything that would give the impression that they’re not neutral or giving fair considering
to the facts on both sides.
So for McConnell to gleefully admit that not only is he not willing to be neutral, but
is ACTIVELY working WITH the Trump administration - in effect the jury coordinating with the
defendant - is a complete and total abdication of his responsibility as a Senator.
And clearly he’s setting an example that the rest of his caucus is following.
Lindsey Graham, who in the course of a few years has gone from one of the few moderates
in the Senate to reveling in his new role as Trump’s favorite lap dog, recently came
out and said, "I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind.
I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.
What I see coming, happening today is just a partisan nonsense."
When asked if it was appropriate for him to be voicing his opinion prior to the trial,
Graham said, "Well, I must think so because I'm doing it."
And of course Graham sees no irony in the idea that he’s justifying his public refusal
to uphold his oath of office and serve as a neutral juror in a Senate impeachment trial
because he thinks it’s partisan nonsense.
Because nothing shows just how much you hate partisanship as being so partisan that you
won’t even do the bare minimum required of your job by simply shutting up and even
pretending to be neutral.
And yet while all of this is clearly a disgusting abuse of power, it’s not the least bit surprising
for this batch of Senate Republicans.
I wouldn’t think twice about saying that Mitch McConnell has unilaterally done more
damage to our government than any other person in modern American history.
From failing to bring over 250 bills that passed the House to the Senate floor for a
vote to dedicating his initial days as Senate Majority Leader to blocking President Obama’s
every legislative move and judicial appointment, to making up an arbitrary rule that a president
can’t nominate a Supreme Court justice to the bench in an election year if the majority
of Congress is a different party than the president, which – to be clear – is complete
BS, McConnell has turned what used to be the world’s greatest deliberative body into
a partisan circus.
And he’s proud of his reputation.
McConnell has referred to himself as the quote “grim reaper” of legislation, a reference
to the fact that bills effectively die when they reach his desk, which is especially grim
considering among those bills are HR8, the universal bipartisan background checks act
of 2019, which would save countless lives.
But I guess American lives are a small price to pay for McConnell staying consistent with
his branding.
Even in this very interview, Hannity played dumb and remarked how surprised he was that
Obama left so many vacancies in the judiciary and didn’t try to fill them, at which point
McConnell gleefully chimed in to take full credit—
If you recall, Sean, the most important decision I’ve made in my entire political career
is not to fill the Supreme Court vacancy when Justice Scalia passed away.
That was the beginning, and now we’ve got an exclamation point here after three years
that we thought the public would be interested in reading about, and that’s why the president
and I collaborated on this paperback.
I was shocked that former president Obama left so many vacancies and didn’t try to
fill those positions.
I’ll tell you why.
I was in charge of what we did in the last two years of the Obama administration.
[laughs] And I will give you full credit for that and
by the way take a bow.
Alright, that was a good one.
The simple fact is that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are not there to govern
or follow the rules or respect our government’s institutions or protect our democracy.
They are there to enact their agenda and retain their grip on power by any means possible.
Democrats need to come to the realization that bipartisanship with these people is a
fool’s errand, that the two sides are playing dramatically different games by a different
set of rules.
And so just as important as the presidency in 2020 is taking the Senate, kicking Mitch
McConnell out of power, and going back to the business of serving the American people,
instead of doing the bidding of the most corrupt president in modern American history.