Category: MitchMcConnell

McConnell’s second impeachment cover-up is hiding how Republicans are blowing off their jobs

Posted on by Laura Clawson

As you watch the impeachment trial, with its unrelenting single camera angle, remember that this is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s other cover-up. McConnell has most famously rigged the rules of the trial so that it’s extremely unlikely to include witnesses or new evidence. But he’s also responsible for the limited view of the Senate during the trial, and it’s not just an aesthetic issue.

Sign the petition: We need fair media access to the Senate impeachment trial.

C-SPAN, CNN, and other networks asked to have more cameras recording the historic event, but McConnell wasn’t having it—he kept the video feed limited to a government-controlled camera that shows basically nothing but the person speaking, with the occasional shot of the entire room. Combined with a prohibition on still cameras and sharp restrictions on press access to senators during the trial, this means that viewers can’t see senators’ reactions. Or senators napping. Or—and this is where it especially matters—when senators leave the room rather than honoring their duty as jurors.

As political historian Julian Zelizer told CNN, “The last thing Republicans want right now is for a camera to pan the chamber to show a bunch of the senators aren't there. That would be problematic and politically embarrassing.” But that's exactly what's happening, and what McConnell’s restrictions on cameras are keeping from public view.

We don't have a view of how many senators are playing hooky or reading books at any given time, and we don’t know what else we’re missing. ”With the Senate in control of what images are broadcast and disseminated, the public loses that right to independent access and are left reliant on what the government wishes them to see and hear,” said the general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association.

As Mitch McConnell wants it.

Chief Justice Roberts lets Senate Republicans show blatant disdain for impeachment proceedings

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Senate Republicans are united again in saying they've heard absolutely nothing new in the House impeachment managers presentation against Donald Trump. That's after they voted en masse, as a unified bloc, against 10 amendments from Democrats to provide more information at the outset of the trial. They don't want to hear anything new, which is glaringly apparent in their disdain for the rules and blatant flouting of them.

They're acting like a bunch of middle school kids bored in their civics class. "Gum-chewing, snacking, yawning and alleged napping could be seen throughout the cramped chamber," AP's Laurie Kellman reports. "Some openly snickered when lead prosecutor Adam Schiff said he’d only speak for 10 minutes. And when one of the freshman House prosecutors stood to speak, many of the senator-jurors bolted for the cloak rooms, where their phones are stored." Which is the least of it. Numerous Republican senators have been reported to have just left for long stretches at a time. Rand Paul brought in a crossword to play with. At one point more 1/5 of the Senate—21 members—were out of the chamber. Which leads to one major question: what in the hell is Chief Justice John Roberts doing in the meantime, since he's refusing to enforce the rules?

He is presiding over this trial, which is supposed to mean enforcing the rules, not acting like a potted plant and doing whatever it is he's been doing—catching up on reading? Crossword puzzles? We don't know that either, because Mitch McConnell didn't let any cameras in besides the ones controlled by him. We get one camera view, the person who is speaking, so all the senators who are supposed to be remaining in their seats, paying attention, not talking can do whatever the hell they want, it seems.

Republicans clearly don't give a damn about anything, Trump could steal the entire treasury and if they got a kickback, they'd be fine with it. But they're being just a little too obvious in that, underestimating the extent to which the voters are turning against them, both in hearing new witnesses and documents, and in convicting and removing Trump from office.

They're playing with fire, increasing the likelihood that they'll be severely burned in November.

Schiff shines bright light on Moscow Mitch’s dangerous negligence in protecting our elections

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Rep. Adam Schiff, in his role as impeachment manager, both distilled the import of this trial and put Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell under a harsh light, without ever mentioning McConnell's name. In his opening argument, as prepared and provided by email, Schiff says that the "House did not take this extraordinary step lightly. As we will discuss, impeachment exists for cases in which the conduct of the President rises far beyond mere policy disputes to be decided, otherwise and without urgency, at the ballot box."

But, he says "we are here today to consider a much more grave matter, and that is an attempt to use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election. For precisely this reason, the President’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box—for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won. [emphasis added]"

It's time to end McConnell's destructive stranglehold on the republic. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats and end his career as majority leader.

That's the case in a nutshell, that and the continuation of the thought, that "in obstructing the investigation into his own wrongdoing, the President has shown that he believes that he is above the law and scornful of constraint." Trump believes he's above the law and unconstrained because McConnell refuses to do his constitutional duty and provide a check. No where is that failure of McConnell more dire than in refusing to secure the ballot box, which Schiff is subtly underscoring in his statement.

The legislation to protect our elections from interference from Russia and other adversaries has been sitting in the graveyard of the Senate for months, with McConnell refusing to act on it because he says the government has done enough, and even congratulates the Trump administration for the actions it's taken. That presumably includes Trump publicly, on national TV,  inviting any foreign government who wants to interfere to come on in.

This is deadly serious business. McConnell and Senate Republicans might not be taking that seriously, but the nation is watching.

McConnell is also covering up the bad behavior of Republican senators during this impeachment trial

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The D.C. press corps is filling in where the cameras that Mitch McConnell refused to allow into the impeachment trial are absent. So we know just what a farce Republicans consider this exercise to be. And precisely why McConnell made sure the American people don't see it.

Reporter Michael McAuliff tweeted that, a few of hours into Rep. Adam Schiff's presentation "21 empty seats on the GOP side of the Senate, 2 on the Dem side. […] Some are just stretching their legs, but most are not in the chamber. Some of them have been out of there for a while." Those who were out for "for a long time"—Republicans Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, and Bill Cassidy. Reporter Paul McLeod tweeted about McConnell's histrionics toward the end of Schiff's presentation when "McConnell threw his hands down and made a clear 'are you kidding me?' face." Republican Rand Paul, Ben Jacobs tweeted, decided to occupy his time working on a crossword puzzle. That's how much they care about the process; how much they care about their singular role in our republic.

As for Chief Justice John Roberts, it shows how seriously he's taking this whole thing, too. Because it's his job to enforce the rules, which tell them they have to give up electronic devices and stay silent and are "requested to remain in their seats at all times they are on on the Senate floor" during the proceedings.

They're all taking this about as seriously as they took that oath they swore to at the outset, to provide impartial justice.

McConnell makes it clear: He doesn’t want witnesses at any point in impeachment trial

Posted on by Mark Sumner

As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made multiple attempts to subpoena documents and witnesses during the opening day of the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump’s legal team sang the same tune: This was the wrong time. In response to every round of amendments, Trump’s attorneys repeated the claim that they weren’t really trying to suppress witnesses; it was just that Schumer was asking at the wrong time. There would be a point later in the trial, after the case was made and debates were complete: Then there’d be a time when the rules would allow for witnesses. Or, actually, when the rules would allow for debate over whether any witnesses should be called, with a provision to shut down all witnesses with a single vote.

And McConnell has made it clear how he wants to use that vote. Despite all the overnight protests that if Schumer would only sit down, and the House managers would stop supporting the call for subpoenas, there would be a time for all that later, McConnell has made the real plan perfectly plain to Senate Republicans: He wants no witnesses in this trial. Ever.

As CNN reports, before the trial began, McConnell claimed that he was the impeachment of Bill Clinton as a model for the trial of Trump, leaving the question of calling witnesses until later in the process. McConnell went into the trial pretending that he wasn’t shutting out witnesses, and several Republicans—such as the always-willing-to-pretend-at-fairness Susan Collins—have indicated that they will consider the possibility of calling witnesses.

But the structure of the trial, as defined by McConnell’s passed-at-2-a.m. proposal, means that any witnesses called would come after the case is made by the House managers, and after the period of questioning and debate. So witnesses could appear, say their piece … and apparently leave without comment. During Tuesday’s long session, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff made it clear what McConnell’s trial structure really meant: “A vote to delay is a vote to deny," he said.

That’s not just the plain reading of the resolution that Republicans passed along party lines in the early morning Wednesday; it’s also exactly what McConnell has told his fellow senators in what CNN describes as “private meetings.” In addition to telling those senators that he wants no witnesses, McConnell has promised that if Democrats succeed in getting enough Republican votes to call someone such as John Bolton or Mick Mulvaney, McConnell will respond with flood-the-zone tactics, calling Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and others who are the subjects of right-wing conspiracy theories.

But, especially in light of the rigid voting on Tuesday night, McConnell seems confident that he won’t face that prospect. Instead, he expects to put a bow on the whole affair by this point next week … handing Donald Trump a chance to scream about exoneration without the threat of hearing from a single witness or facing a single document.

Chuck Schumer and House impeachment managers destroy Team Trump on first night of Senate trial

Posted on by Mark Sumner

All through Tuesday afternoon, and evening, and night, and the early hours of Wednesday, the Democratic team of House managers fought the good fight, seeking subpoenas of documents and witnesses as well as procedural changes that would close loopholes intentionally built into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s design for the Senate impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. And they lost every time. In fact, except for a single early morning vote from faux moderate Susan Collins, Republicans voted exactly as expected, giving Trump and McConnell a 53-47 party line victory on nine straight proposed amendments.

But if that made it seem that the day was a waste … it wasn’t. Yes, Republicans batted down attempts to get documents, call witnesses, and prevent the White House from flooding the zone with cherry-picked documents. However, with every amendment, House managers got the chance to lay out their case. They introduced the facets of Trump’s malfeasance step by step, pillar by pillar, with each member of the team stepping up to carry the load on a specific area. Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team was left sputtering and looping back over not just talking points, but also obvious lies. It might have been a losing effort—but it was still magnificent.

At first, it wasn’t clear exactly what was happening. After an introductory speech from both sides—during which Trump attorneys Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow burned up every talking point they had—Schumer introduced a proposal to seek documents from the White House. This provided for an hour on each side to debate the merits of the amendment. Except the Democratic team used that time for a detailed review of those documents that were being withheld by the White House and how key they were to the case ahead. Trump’s attorneys responded by repeating their talking points and throwing on more personal insults for the case managers.

This pattern then repeated for an incredible nine more amendments. After the second, it became clear just what was happening: Chuck Schumer structured the amendments not as simple requests, but as detailed explanations that mentioned specific exchanges, particular conversations, critical meetings, and other events that were known to have happened, but were missing from the evidence available to the House team. During the debate period for each amendment, different members of that House team rose to give an even more detailed defense of the need for those documents, with Zoe Lofgren, Val Demings, Hakeem Jeffries, and Jason Crow all doing spectacular jobs in dealing with requests from the White House, State Department, Office of Management and Budget, and Department of Defense.

After the OMB request, Schumer mixed things up a bit by requesting a personal subpoena of Mick Mulvaney. Again, this wasn’t just a “Give us Mulvaney” request, but a detailed summons that included a recitation of Mulvaney’s interactions with Trump, his role in blocking military assistance to Ukraine, and—wonderfully—his press conference confession, complete with the “Get over it” moment. The individual subpoenas continued, allowing Sylvia Garcia and Jerry Nadler to join in the fray. Those subpoenas bracketed additional requests for changes to the structure of the proceedings to eliminate wording that made it excessively easy for the White House to pretend to respond to a request by producing only documents that are favorable to Trump, and another section that gave Republicans multiple chances to kill future requests for witnesses.

By the sixth proposed amendment—at around 9:30 p.m.—a clearly dragging Mitch McConnell begged for mercy. He called for a quorum vote to force a delay, trying to negotiate Schumer into making all his remaining requests in a lump so Republicans could give them a single down vote and go home.

But Schumer had no inclination to make such a deal for a very, very good reason. Over the course of 10 amendments, the team of Democratic House managers introduced the case against Trump in loving detail. Without touching a minute of the 24 hours that the proposal allots to each team, the House managers made a 10-hour introduction to the case, spelling out the players and the crimes.

Through it all, both McConnell and the Trump team seemed utterly unprepared, while the Democrats had clearly practiced this maneuver for weeks. Despite McConnell’s vaunted reputation as a master of Senate secrets, he seemed utterly unable to deal with Schumer’s moves as the Democratic team slowly, methodically, and systematically bulldozed the Republican team. 

There were some highlights for Trump’s attorneys, but not in a good sense. While Deputy White House Counsel Patrick Philbin stepped in to occasionally spell Sekulow and Cipollone, it was after 11 p.m. before Trump lawyer Pam Bondi was allowed to make a five-minute appearance in which she not only failed to even mention the topic at hand, but also sat down without even noting that her moment in the spotlight was done. The other top-notch moment came when Jay Sekulow apparently misheard Val Demings talking about “FOIA lawsuits” and spent his entire time period making an incoherent rant about “lawyer lawsuits,” and “how dare” Demings talk about “lawyer lawsuits”?

The Bolton subpoena was near the end of the proceedings, and when a still-wound-up-at-midnight Nadler rose to support that amendment, he jumped in with both feet, taking a much more aggressive tone than previous House managers. The usually much more pedantic House Judiciary Committee chair called Republican votes to suppress subpoenas “treacherous” and accused Republicans in the Senate of being part of the cover-up as they voted to shut out witnesses. Nadler’s sharply worded performance seemed to wake up Trump’s tired team, and both Cipollone and Sekulow jumped in to flat-out scream at Nadler in response—following which Chief Justice John Roberts saw fit to waggle a finger at both sides, cautioning them about the Senate’s rules against personal insults. Notably, Roberts had not been stirred to make such a comment despite hundreds of insults and lies from the Republican team earlier in the night.

In the end, the Republicans got everything they wanted. On paper. But the Democratic team didn’t put on a pointless show. It showed that it’s come loaded for a serious fight, and that neither McConnell nor Trump’s legal team is prepared. It’s almost as if the House managers spent that time that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave them planning strategy and tactics and practicing their approach to the material. Which suggests that, like Tuesday night, the rest of the week might not go quite as well for Team Trump as they’ve been expecting.

Schumer and the House team may not have won the votes, but they absolutely won the evening. By miles. And everyone on the other side of the aisle should be sweating.

Impeachment trial opening arguments kick off Wednesday after marathon Tuesday debate

Posted on by Laura Clawson

Opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump begin at 1 PM ET on Wednesday, after a brutal nearly 13-hour day of procedural debate on Tuesday that ended at nearly 2 AM. Democrats offered a series of amendments to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s cover-up plan, seeking to be able to call witnesses or subpoena new evidence that the White House has obstructed, but Republicans voted down proposal after proposal, making clear again and again that they do not want the facts.

On Wednesday, the House impeachment managers will begin to make their case, for which they have 24 hours over three days. That means arguments could stretch past 9 PM, depending on how many breaks the Senate takes. The day will be especially exhausting for Chief Justice John Roberts, who presides over the trial and will also be hearing arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning.

The House managers—Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Jason Crow, and Sylvia Garcia—will lay out the case that Trump abused power and obstructed Congress. In fact, they already began to make that argument on Tuesday as they argued for why the Senate trial should include more witnesses and evidence, showing themselves to be far sharper and more prepared than Trump’s defense team, even before you consider that the facts are on the House managers’ side. Wednesday, they have the opportunity to put it all together uninterrupted.

Trump will spend most of the day in the air on his way back from Davos, Switzerland, where he conducted several typically lie-riddled interviews before leaving.