Mitch McConnell: Speaker Pelosi Withholding Impeachment Papers is ‘Absurd’

 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tore into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for holding on to the impeachment articles against President Donald Trump, saying that her stalling is an “absurd position” during a Monday interview on Fox & Friends.

“I’m not anxious to have this trial, so if she wants to hold all of the papers go right ahead,” McConnell told Fox News, which he appeared on to promote his new book.

“I can’t imagine what purpose is served by her holding on to the papers, so sooner or later I’m assuming she’s going to send them over,” he added. “It seems to me a rather absurd position to say after you’ve impeached the president that you won’t send the papers over to the Senate for the impeachment trial, mandated by the Constitution.”

When asked about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) calls for impartiality in the Senate trial, the senior Kentucky senator replied, “Do you think Chuck Schumer is impartial? Do you think Elizabeth Warren is impartial? Bernie Sanders is impartial? So let’s quit the charade. This is a political exercise. All I’m asking of Schumer is that we treat Trump the same way we treated Clinton.”

“We’re at an impasse,” he concluded. “We can’t do anything until the speaker sends the papers over so everybody enjoy the holidays.”

Pelosi has argued that she is holding onto the impeachment papers until the Senate can produce a bipartisan procedural resolution in Trump’s trial, saying on Thursday during a Capitol Hill presser, “We would hope that they can come to some conclusion like that.”

“We’re ready,” she continued. “When we see the process that is set forth in the Senate, then we’ll know the number of managers that we may have to go forward and who we will choose.”

Since his impeachment, the president has responded to Pelosi’s stalling strategy by accusing the Democrats’ case of being “so bad that they don’t even want to go to trial!”

Watch above, via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags:

Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma