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riversedge

(69,722 posts)
Mon Jan 13, 2020, 03:17 PM Jan 2020

Mitch McConnell is cynically undermining any notion of an honest impeachment trial





Mitch McConnell is cynically undermining any notion of an honest impeachment trial


He’s not as noisy as Trump, but McConnell has always been just as recklessly partisan and shameless

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/13/mitch-mcconnell-trump-impeachment-trial

Mon 13 Jan 2020 05.30 EST
Last modified on Mon 13 Jan 2020 05.32 EST


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In the Soviet Union, show trials were a legal farce in which the guilt of the accused had been determined well before the hapless defendant was dragged before the court. But even in the most grotesque of Stalinist proceedings, the court went through the motions of hearing the testimony of witnesses and receiving evidence, even if those motions were entirely pro forma.
Pompeo has sealed his spot as 'Trump's whisperer' with his mission to beat Iran


Today in America, we are confronted with a sad inversion of the Stalinist show trial: the “McConnell show trial.” The McConnell show trial mocks judicial process by loudly trumpeting the innocence of the accused before the trial begins. In the McConnell show trial, no witnesses need be called, no documents reviewed; the jury marches to the orders of the accused.

The Constitution requires that senators trying impeachment cases “shall be on Oath.” Since 1798, that special oath – distinct from the oath of office that all members of Congress must take – requires senators to “do impartial justice.” In deciding to orchestrate a show trial, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has decided to reject this oath, openly declaring, “I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process. I’m not impartial about this at all.”


McConnell’s position brazenly expands on the Republican charge that Nancy Pelosi and Jerry Nadler reneged on their commitment not to pursue impeachment unless the process enjoyed bipartisan support. Admittedly, congressional Republicans have exposed a flaw in Pelosi and Nadler’s logic: they assumed that at least some Republicans would be prepared to support impeachment after seeing indisputable evidence that the president engaged in transparently impeachable acts. That has been shown to be a false assumption.

Now we know that House Republicans would rather liken a corrupt and incorrigible chief executive to Jesus at Calvary or the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor than break with the president.

McConnell, in turn, is now using the Republican’s own hyper-partisanship – the reality that no facts concerning the Ukraine scandal, no matter how egregious, would cause Republicans to support Trump’s removal – to argue that that the present impeachment lacks the kind of bipartisanship that would conduce to Republican participation.

In other words: McConnell cynically exploits Republican obstructionism to justify yet more obstructionism.

None of this should surprise us. The sad reality is that Trump’s politics of constitutional defiance are less an idiosyncratic aspect of his demagogic leadership and more a feature of recent Republican politics. In this, McConnell has been the master strategist. Recall his stunning refusal to grant a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the supreme court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. In a 150-year span – from 1866 to 2016 – the Senate never once prevented a president from ultimately filling a supreme court vacancy. McConnell’s refusal to consider Obama’s choice was more than a break with precedent. It was an act of constitutional nullification...............................................
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Mitch McConnell is cynically undermining any notion of an honest impeachment trial (Original Post) riversedge Jan 2020 OP
When jduge, jury and exocutioners are Cartaphelius Jan 2020 #1
 

Cartaphelius

(868 posts)
1. When jduge, jury and exocutioners are
Mon Jan 13, 2020, 05:43 PM
Jan 2020

Senators refusing to follow their Oath of Office to serve America
and the Rule of Law every other American are held accountable
for the Supreme Court should invoke the immediate and
mandatory Recusal, for all self-declared criminal Senators.

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