Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that the Senate impeachment impeachment trial was on track to start in earnest early next week, after Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
McConnell said that he was hopeful the Senate could complete some impeachment trial “housekeeping measures” by the end of this week, “which would set us up to begin the actual trial next Tuesday.”
McConnell later added that the main resolution laying out the procedures for the first few phases of the trial would not be voted on until Tuesday. He did not say when the text of the resolution itself would be unveiled.
After McConnell’s announcement, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) — a member of the GOP leadership team and chair of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration — went into more detail about the expected timeline, which will kick into gear once the House votes Wednesday on a resolution approving the impeachment managers that Speaker Nancy Pelosi selects.
After that vote, Blunt said, the House will inform the secretary of the Senate that it’s ready to send its impeachment managers over. The Senate will then consider a resolution dealing with floor access and mechanical details, such as the placement of the furniture, for the Senate trial. All of that is likely to happen on Wednesday, Blunt said.
On Thursday, according to this expected timeline, the Senate would receive the House managers, who will announce the articles of impeachment from the Senate floor. After that, the president pro tempore of the Senate will swear in Chief Justice John Roberts, and then Roberts will swear in the senators.
“And we believe that’s sort of the end of this week,” Blunt said.
In his remarks, McConnell confirmed the trial procedures resolution the Senate is slated to vote on next week had the support of all 53 Republicans.
He also suggested that the resolution will not include a provision setting up a motion to dismiss early in the trial, as was included in the Clinton impeachment rules package. The White House was pushing for such a measure, but Republicans lack the votes to dismiss the case before the evidence from both sides is heard.
“There is little or no sentiment in the Republican conference for a motion to dismiss,” McConnell said.
Other Republicans suggested this week that individual senators or the President’s legal team could still offer on their own a motion to dismiss the case.
He has a real constitutional stunt planned for sure.
I won’t be happy until we get to the execution phase of the guilty defendant. As we used to do with traitors.
All Republicans will stick their heads up their a$$es and vote the way Moscow Mitch was told , by Putin, on how they are to vote.
This, of course, is to save the taxpayers money .
So here’s a theory (a hypo if you will) that popped into my head. (warning: this is not a prediction, just thinking virtually out loud):
Senate trial starts;
Schumer starts winning votes on witnesses and documents;
Public attention causes a build up in the media;
Newly expected FOIA releases get wide, Watergate style under the microscope coverage further confirming the story already told but the media play catch up to where the country has been;
Biden wins IA and NH. Looks poised to win in NV and SC;
Economic projections on manufacturing jobs, impact of trade war, growth and employment show a marked slowdown from 2019;
Trump sees the writing on the wall. Biden will be the Dem nominee and he recognizes and fears that he can’t beat Biden;
The polling progresses to the point where ‘Removal from Office’ is now net popular by about 8 to 10 points overall and gaining steam;
Trump begins negotiations on a resignation deal. The deal is he gets acquitted by the US Senate to give him his ‘exoneration’ and perhaps a talking point w/prosecutors or at trial before a jury. He orchestrates a pardon deal with Pence brokered by Barr. He resigns.
Pence now becomes POTUS. He is forced out of the running for the next term because he too is implicated as more of the info under lock and key comes out. New GOP primary, a complete TSS. Some douchebag wins the nomination who will be a sacrificial lamb. Biden wins in a Lyndon Johnson 1964 style blowout.
Has Mitch been over to the WH this week to coordinate with the stable Jenius? I don’t trust anything he says about this at all.