While Democrats Indulge Three-Year-Old Impeachment Obsession, Senate Republicans Ready to Deliver Real Progress for American Families
‘Democrats would rather fight with the White House than work with Republicans and with the administration to pass legislation. We need real solutions - like full-year funding for our armed forces so our men and women in uniform can receive their pay raise and our commanders can engage in long-term planning.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the Senate’s agenda:
“I mentioned yesterday the contrast between our work here in the Senate and what’s transpiring in the House of Representatives. On this side of the Capitol, we are focused on working for the American people.
“We are overcoming Democrats’ historic delay tactics and obstruction to confirm more of the president’s impressive nominees for the executive branch and the judiciary. Later today we will confirm a new Secretary of the Air Force, and then turn to several impressive nominees to district court vacancies to continue our renewal of the federal judiciary.
“We’ll also keep working on the appropriations process and providing the funding our Armed Forces need. And we are discussing ways to discourage the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East and ensure the United States of America continues to provide the essential global leadership that has cornered ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorists and kept our nation safe. And the House of Representatives? They’re doubling down on their three-year-old obsession with finding ways to nullify the decision the American people made in November 2016.
“Speaker Pelosi’s Democrats are blocking the USMCA, the landmark trade deal which would create 176,000 new jobs for American workers. They are dragging their heels on funding the government, keeping our military commanders in limbo. All their energy is going into this all-consuming impeachment parade that has been rolling on for three years now, searching for a rationale.
“Remember, it was literally Inauguration Day, January 2017, when the Washington Post ran this headline: ‘The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.’
“Well, they got it right.
“Before President Trump even took office, one prominent House Democrat had already declared he would not be a legitimate president. Just a few months later, another was already promising she would not rest until she impeached him.
“From the very beginning of this presidency, Washington Democrats have lived in a state of denial. They seemed positive that some inside-the-Beltway maneuver would save them from the consequences of Secretary Clinton’s defeat.
“They hoped Special Counsel Mueller’s report would validate their theories about conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“They used their minority powers here in the Senate to effectively try to nullify his presidency by obstructing even completely uncontroversial nominees to all kinds of government posts, simply because this president was the one who nominated them.
“Three years of this. Now, finally, Speaker Pelosi’s efforts to hold back her left-wing caucus have officially crumbled and the House has thrown itself into impeachment.
“Now, given the lip service that House Democrats pay to defending the norms and institutions of American government, you might think they would at least run this so-called ‘impeachment inquiry’ by the book.
“You might think that the people trying to overrule American voters and cancel out an election from Washington D.C. would conduct their process by the very highest standards of fairness and due process.
“But — you’d be wrong.
“Our Democratic colleagues have had their minds made up since long before this inquiry began. Remember, the chairwoman of one of the committees that Speaker Pelosi has put in charge of this process said in April of 2017, quote, ‘I’m going to fight every day until he’s impeached.’ So this is not about seriously discharging constitutional responsibilities. It’s about the end result they’ve had in mind since day one.
“Remember when the campaign to block Justice Kavanaugh began with protest signs with a big empty blank for the name? It was a fill-in-the-blank protest before they even knew the nominee. And now, we have the sequel, with this fill-in-the-blank quest for impeachment.
“The Democrats’ process already speaks for itself. For the first time ever, Speaker Pelosi has simply ordered the House to conduct an inquiry into impeaching a President without a full vote of the House. Just yesterday, the Speaker doubled down on this unprecedented and undemocratic process by once again refusing to hold a vote on an impeachment inquiry.
“Democrats have refused to give Republicans the same rights and fair treatment that Republicans afforded Democrats during the Clinton impeachment — things like equal subpoena power for the ranking members.
“Likewise, Democrats have refused to give President Trump’s counsel the same opportunities that Republicans gave to President Clinton — rights such as attending all hearings and depositions, offering evidence, and cross-examining witnesses.
“We have already seen Chairman Schiff say in public that his committee had not been in touch with the whistleblower when they actually had been.
“We have seen Chairman Schiff bizarrely and brazenly fabricate what the president actually said to the President of Ukraine, during an official hearing that he was chairing. Only to claim that his fabrications were ‘parody’ when Republicans called him out for it.
“The same Democrats who are running this circus turn around and claim with a straight face that they are solemnly following the facts and the Constitution wherever it leads.
“Give me a break. The entire country can see that’s not what is happening.
“And here’s what else the American people can see: That Democrats would rather fight with the White House than work with Republicans and with the administration to pass legislation.
“We need real solutions – like full-year funding for our armed forces so our men and women in uniform can receive their pay raise and our commanders can engage in long-term planning.
“Real solutions like the USMCA, the major victory for American workers and American businesses which the Trump administration negotiated with Canada and Mexico – but which Speaker Pelosi has blocked for months, with 176,000 new American jobs in the balance.
“The opportunities are right here before us. Senate Republicans have been ready and waiting for weeks and months to do our part and actually make law on these subjects, for the benefit of American families. We just need our counterparts across the Capitol to get serious.”
Related Issues: Nominations, Free Trade, Appropriations
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