Democrats Want Mitch McConnell To Recuse Himself From Senate Trial, Admit They Will Impeach Again If Effort Fails

Democrats, increasingly desperate to either avoid a Senate trial altogether or to conform the Senate trial to their whims and needs, are now pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who will run operations once the impeachment enters a Senate trial phase, to “recuse” himself because he cannot be an “impartial juror.”

Dem Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) told CNN late Tuesday that she and other Democrats are preparing to request that McConnell step down from his role overseeing the Senate trial or Democrats will be forced to declare a “mistrial,” abandon the impeachment process, and re-impeach the President when the opportunity presents itself again.

“I think we’re going to have to call a mistrial before it even gets over to the Senate,” Speier told the network. “My understanding is that each of the senators is going to have to take an oath that they will independently evaluate the evidence for impeachment. . . . It sounds like there’s no interest in doing that whatsoever, and I would think Mitch McConnell should recuse himself.”

WATCH:

“We’re going to have to call for a mistrial before it ever gets over to the Senate,” Rep. Jackie Speier says in response to House Majority Leader McConnell stating that he is not an impartial juror. “I would think Mitch McConnell should recuse himself.” https://t.co/oFYNesBjH8 pic.twitter.com/XSENN6X1Kb

— CNN (@CNN) December 17, 2019

The premiere irony of Speier’s interview is, of course, that few Democrats are willing to call themselves “impartial jurors” in the matter of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, even Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who used the term to describe himself just moments after implying that the President is so guilty of impeachable, criminal offenses that the Senate trial is almost immaterial.

Even McConnell doesn’t consider himself emotionally unattached from the matter, particularly given that the Republican Party will be charged with mounting a defense for Trump in any trial where the Senate votes to include witness testimony.

“I’m not an impartial juror,” McConnell admitted in his own interview with CNN Tuesday. “This is a political process. There is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision.”

The statement echoed sentiments McConnell expressed on the Senate floor Tuesday in a speech firing back at Schumer for daring to make demands of McConnell and Senate Republican leadership in regards to the upcoming trial’s schedule. Schumer, of course, wrote a three page letter to McConnell, released to the public Monday, “requiring” that Senate Republicans allow Democrats to put on witness testimony, so that Schumer can plug holes in the case for impeachment left wide open by his House colleagues.

“It is not the Senate’s job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get to ‘guilty,’” McConnell said Tuesday. “The Senate is meant to act as judge and jury, to hear a trial, not to re-run the entire fact-finding investigation because angry partisans rushed sloppily through it.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) also got the memo about “recusal,” telling MSNBC that he believes McConnell should find a more appropriate judge and jury for Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.

“I’m not easily shocked by Mitch McConnell. Almost nothing he’s done in his career has really shocked me,” Sherrod said, as if McConnell’s statements have been utterly uncalled-for. “There is increasing talk that he should recuse himself from this trial, when we are supposed to sit their and judge the evidence.”

Brown claimed that McConnell doesn’t have respect for the institution” of the Senate, despite serving in it for decades, and that he, Brown, was waiting to make up his mind on impeachment until he hears more from additional witnesses (of course).

“All of us should be open,” Brown said. “Maybe Trump will bring witnesses. Maybe he’ll bring Mulvaney. Maybe he’ll bring Bolton forward, and maybe he’ll change our minds…I need to at least be open to that, that’s what a juror does. Jurors are supposed to listen—not decide ahead of time.”

Mitch McConnell is unlikely to recuse himself, but the possibility of a mistrial is still open. Because the Constitution does not explicitly guard against “double jeopardy” for a president forced to undergo an impeachment trial, Democrats could, theoretically, continue to bring impeachment to the table, over and over, until the Senate finally gives in.