McConnell’s is a failed Senator. What he is successful at is dangerous partisanship, hypocrisy and corrupt intentions.
McConnell’s original design for the Senate Impeachment trial of Trump was to allow the House Managers and the White House Counsel only 2 days to present their 24 hr allotted time for arguments. This schedule would have forced the proceedings to continue far into the early morning hours of the following day. That arduous schedule happened on Tuesday evening, and by today, McConnell agreed to extend the time for presenting arguments to three days instead of two. He also called for the trial to exclude any of the evidence gathered by the House during the impeachment inquiry. Due to opposition, that restriction was changed to include that evidence.
For all of the touting of Mitch McConnell as a political genius, his handling of establishing the criteria for the trial has been a transparent, biased sham. He has announced he aims to get the trial over fast without introducing witnesses or evidence and to acquit Trump before the State of the Union speech on Feb. 4th. His arrogance is causing him to publicly collude with the President and his attorneys on how the trial should be conducted. Legal experts have blasted this move by McConnell as corrupt. The Majority Leader so enjoys being seen as a divisive, hated figure (which is not a sign of being mentally healthy) he is becoming unethical in plain view for all Americans to see.
Even McConnell’s defense of Trump is not impressive. He complains about Trump being denied due process during the impeachment inquiry without producing evidence that substantiates that broad claim. He argues the House’s requests for witnesses and documents say they failed at developing enough evidence to prove their case for impeachment. However, the same witnesses and evidence the House tried to obtain during the impeachment inquiry were blocked by Trump. So McConnell’s claim that the House couldn’t get their job done, so they expect the Senate to do it is ridiculous and weak. His age might be starting to affect his sharpness. Compared to Adam Schiff’s confident, comprehensive, and coherent presentation of facts and evidence, McConnell looked flat and befuddled during the proceedings.
Many legal and journalistic experts are saying that McConnell’s strategy to deter a fair trial from occurring will probably backfire. He is giving the appearance of a cover-up by trying to keep evidence and witnesses from being presented to the Senators, the Chief Justice, and the American people. By so vehemently blocking information from being introduced, McConnell is creating an appearance of the President’s guilt. If there is no incriminating evidence against Trump (because everything he did was “perfect”), then why is McConnell colluding with Trump to hold an unfair trial?
The Majority Leader, along with Trump’s defense team, will continue to be unable to present evidence or witnesses that contradict the claims made by the credible State Department Officials and Ambassadors against Trump regarding his Ukraine quid pro quo scheme. Republicans have no such witnesses or evidence to counter these charges. They will continue to not praise for Trump as being a patriotic, law-abiding person of high moral character who would never do what he is being accused of doing because they know that would be a false characterization of him. They will continue to fail to present documents that vindicate the president from breaking laws because there is proof that laws have been broken. However, they will continue to claim the president has been denied his rights in the process. They will continue to argue everything the president did is within the broad powers given to him by the Constitution. They will continue to support the president’s withholding of military aid to Ukraine because he still viewed them as corrupt. Even a layperson can shoot down that last defense. Would a person qualified to be president say to the leader of a country, “I don’t trust you enough to give you military aid, but I trust you enough to conduct an investigation into an American presidential candidate.”
Trump will inevitably be acquitted by the Senate. However, the trial has already exposed evidence that Trump lies, has betrayed the Constitution, and has a dangerous view of himself as having limitless powers to do as he pleases with the United States government, its financial resources, and its allies and adversaries. Partisanship and opportunism are on display in the Republican Party, and with an acquittal, the country must brace itself for continued corruption. Hopefully, voters will not re-elect Trump and McConnell so Americans can recover its honor.
