Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on November 18 that he cannot envision that the Senate would vote to remove President Trump from office.
“I can’t imagine a scenario under which President Trump would be removed from office with 67 votes in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky, USA Today reported.
McConnell also expressed concerns that an impeachment trial would interfere with the Senate’s ongoing business, complaining that it has already slowed progress on priorities such as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which requires Congressional approval.
“Nothing is happening because House Democrats seized with Trump derangement syndrome are consumed with this argument with the president,” McConnell said.
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Although the attempts to impeach Trump have produced almost entirely negative consequences, if they have slowed down progress on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, that might be one — albeit unintended — benefit stemming from the ongoing circus taking place in the House.
In an October 1 article, The New American noted:
The proposed USMCA has been widely portrayed as a replacement for NAFTA, which supposedly will no longer exist. Yet an honest look at the new agreement shows that what will no longer exist is the highly unpopular NAFTA name. In fact, not only does the USMCA retain sovereignty-diminishing provisions found in NAFTA, but it actually strengthens and expands them.
The Hill reported that McConnell has promised to let the impeachment inquiry go to trial in the Senate, as is provided by the Constitution, if Trump is impeached by the House.
“I don’t think there’s any question that we have to take up the matter. The rules of impeachment are very clear, we’ll have to have a trial. My own view is that we should give people the opportunity to put the case on,” he said.
The Hill report also noted that some Republican senators have considered a plan to dismiss a House impeachment inquiry were it to proceed to the upper chamber, observing that such a plan would require a simple majority of 51 votes.
Republicans, including McConnell, have been critical of the House impeachment process, and have argued that the president has not been allowed to defend himself during the hearings before the House Intelligence Committee.
“They have denied President Trump basic due process and are cutting his counsel out of the process in an unprecedented way. House Democrats’ new resolution does not change any of that,” McConnell said late last month.
During his talk in Louisville, where he was to receive this year’s “Distinguished Rural Kentuckian” award from the Kentucky Electric Cooperatives, McConnell also criticized a general lack of civility in American political discourse, which he considers to be “our biggest national problem” right now.
“People are acting out,” he said. “We need to learn how to behave better, how to disagree without anger.”
The Hill back on November 5 quoted McConnell’s prediction that the Senate would acquit Trump on any articles of impeachment passed by the House. “I will say I’m pretty sure how it’s likely to end. If it were today, I don’t think there’s any question it would not lead to a removal,” he said.
“So the question is how long the Senate wants to take. How long do the presidential candidates want to be here on the floor of the Senate instead of Iowa and New Hampshire?” he said.
“It’s very difficult to ascertain how long this takes. I’d be surprised if it didn’t end the way the two previous ones did, with the president not being removed from office,” McConnell added, apparently referring to former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
Photo: AP Images
Warren Mass has served The New American since its launch in 1985 in several capacities, including marketing, editing, and writing. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Warren writes from Texas and can be reached at [email protected].
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