'Evasive' Pelosi Cuts Off Impeachment Questions After Mitch McConnell Rips House's 'Shoddy Work'
Nancy Pelosi wasn’t acting too proud Thursday morning.
One day after leading the House of Representatives in the impeachment of the president — the most serious act of Congress short of declaring war — the House speaker stood in front of the nation’s news cameras and declared she didn’t have much to say about it.
At a news conference that came shortly after Senate Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a speech ripping House Democrats, Pelosi was brazen enough to simply repeat that the House wants a “fair process” during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
But, as HuffPost reported, she would give no timeline for when the House would send the articles of impeachment to the upper house, and even implicitly chastised reporters for being focused on the topic.
Nancy Pelosi refuses to take reporters’ questions about impeachment after the media actually pressed her on the decision to withhold impeachment articles from the Senate.
She’s clearly not used to the pushback. pic.twitter.com/qeweSts9aH
— BlazeTV (@BlazeTV) December 19, 2019
In a performance so pathetic even the liberal HuffPost called it “evasive,” Pelosi had no problem calling McConnell a “rogue leader,” but seemed to want to talk about anything but the “historic” act she and her party had committed less than 24 hours before.
“Anybody want to talk about Mexico free trade agreement? Anybody care about that?” Pelosi asked reporters, after turning aside another question about impeachment.
“Jobs for the American people? Progress and addressing globalism and the issues? Anybody want to talk about the SALT tax that we’re passing today, important issues that relate to the economic vitality of our communities? Any other questions? Because I’m not going to answer any more questions on this.”
The effrontery was galling, coming from a House speaker who’d just engineered the impeachment of a president who has built his presidential campaign and focused his presidency precisely on trade issues and jobs for the American people — in other words, improving the “economic vitality of our communities.” And he’s succeeding.
Since the Democratic takeover of the House in January, however, the main goal of Democrats has been impeaching Trump. Now that they’ve done that, the results are so disappointing Pelosi is actually resisting sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate — likely because she knows she can only expect humiliation at the president’s ultimate acquittal.
Instead, she thought reporters would be interested in talking about Democratic efforts to repeal the state and local sales tax caps embedded in the 2017 tax reform act?
To his credit, McConnell on Thursday sounded like he was in no mood to try to rescue Democrats from their own folly.
Branding the impeachment articles passed Wednesday as “shoddy work,” Fox News reported, McConnell said his House counterparts could be “too afraid” to pass them on to the Senate to be dealt with as they deserve.
“Looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet – in front of the entire country,” he said on the Senate floor.
Check it out here.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accuses House Democrats of being “too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate.”
“Looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet—in front of the entire country.” https://t.co/8nwb3mf6mz pic.twitter.com/A1DUyGqOOx
— ABC News (@ABC) December 19, 2019
In a Twitter post published during Pelosi’s news conference, Trump echoed McConnell’s accusation.
Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up! The Do Nothings are so bad for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2019
For his part, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a vocal Trump supporter, charged in a Twitter post that Pelosi’s behavior is approaching “cowardice.”
If House Dems refuse to send Articles of Impeachment to the Senate for trial it would be a breathtaking violation of the Constitution, an act of political cowardice, and fundamentally unfair to President @realdonaldTrump.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 19, 2019
“If House Dems refuse to send Articles of Impeachment to the Senate for trial it would be a breathtaking violation of the Constitution, an act of political cowardice, and fundamentally unfair to President,” he wrote.
Almost every Trump supporter watching this impeachment travesty unfold expected it to end in disaster for Democrats.
Now, it looks like Pelosi might be realizing that impeachment is backfiring — and taking desperate measures to avoid its consequences.
A House speaker who was proud of the “historic” vote on Wednesday wouldn’t shy away from sending articles of impeachment to the Senate.
She wouldn’t be “evasive” or cutting off reporters’ questions about the process either — or trying to change the subject to SALT tax modification.
Somehow, a day after achieving the Democrat dream of impeaching President Trump, Nancy Pelosi didn’t look too proud at all.
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