McConnell Hints That Senate Will Move to Dismiss Impeachment

In a U.S. Senate floor speech Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that the Senate will move to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump after opening arguments.

McConnell Rejects Schumer’s Request

McConnell’s comments occurred in response to a proposal on Monday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the Senate call four additional witnesses that were not called prior during the House inquiry, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

McConnell dismissed Schumer’s idea immediately, arguing that Schumer was trying to make “Chairman Schiff’s sloppy work more persuasive.”

McConnell also accused Schumer of going straight to the media with his proposals rather than reaching out to him in person, as has been done in the past between Senate leaders.

RELATED: Congresswoman Admits Democrats Will Impeach Trump Again If He Wins in 2020

Sen. McConnell also noted that Schumer had misquoted the Constitution. Schumer claimed the Constitution gave the Senate “sole Power of Impeachment,” whereas Article I, Section 3 actually states, “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”

“We don’t create impeachments over here … we judge them,” McConnell declared.

‘Most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history’

The Senate Majority Leaders insisted that it was the House’s role to investigate and to build a case for impeachment.

“If they fail, they fail! It’s not the Senate’s job to leap into the breach to search desperately for ways to get to guilty,” McConnell said. “That would hardly be impartial justice.”

He added that the Senate would not be used for “new fact-finding” that House Democrats are apparently “too impatient” to pursue.

McConnell also strongly hinted that a motion to dismiss the Democrats’ impeachment efforts would be a priority for Republicans.

McConnell said the House’s efforts so far in investigating Trump were the “most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history,” calling it a “slapdash work product” that would be “dumped.”

RELATED: Maxine Waters Threatens Senate: Better Not Ignore Trump Impeachment

‘The House should not impeach on this basis in the first place’

He accused Schumer of trying to clean up House Democrats’ mess.

“Might he — just might he be coordinating these questions with people outside the Senate?” McConnell asked, adding that the case they have to date did not come “anywhere near the bar for impeaching a duly elected president, let alone removing him for the first time in American history.”

“By any ordinary legal standard, what House Democrats have assembled would appear to be woefully, woefully inadequate to prove what they want to allege,” McConnell said, also warning that such a shoddy ploy “will invite future Houses to paralyze future Senates with frivolous impeachments at will.”

“The House should not impeach on this basis in the first place,” McConnell added.

is a professional writer and editor with over 15 years of experience in conservative media and Republican politics. He... More about John Hanson

Mentioned in this article: