Sen. Mike Lee says Nancy Pelosi knows a Senate impeachment trial will end very badly for her
House Democrats realize that they screwed up the case for impeachment, says Utah Senator Mike Lee, Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Thursday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seems to be suddenly scared to death of the impeachment case her caucus has brought against President Trump.
Lee told Fox News' "Hannity" that Pelosi's reticence to send the adopted impeachment articles to the Senate shows she isn't confident in her own case.
"They realize that they screwed this up," he said. "They realize, in an effort to ram this thing through, they did a shoddy job of putting it together."
"Nancy Pelosi is doing this because she's scared to death," Lee added. "This thing is a gigantic hobgoblin for her. She's freaked out by it and she does not want to entrust us with conducting a trial."
He said Pelosi knows very well the Senate impeachment trial will not end well for her party.
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In addition, Lee told guest host Jason Chaffetz that if the speaker does not forward the articles to the Senate for a trial, nothing further will happen.
"It lands with a thud," he said. "Look, there is a land called Passivaggressivia, and Nancy Pelosi is their queen. I do not understand why she did what she did, but it makes no sense."
Lee added that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has signaled he will take up the impeachment articles in a responsible manner.
McConnell, speaking after a meeting Thursday with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Democratic leader had insisted on "departing from the unanimous bipartisan precedent that 100 senators approved before the beginning of President [Bill] Clinton's trial" concerning logistics.
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Schumer had requested a "special pre-trial guarantee of certain witnesses whom the House Democrats, themselves, did not bother to pursue as they assemble their case," McConnell said. He noted that in 1999, "all 100 senators endorsed a common-sense solution" to divide the process into two stages: one laying the groundwork for rules on matters such as opening statements, with another handling "mid-trial questions such as witnesses."
"Some House Democrats imply they are withholding the [impeachment] articles for some kind of leverage," McConnell said. "I admit, I'm not sure what leverage there is in refraining from sending us something we do not want. Alas, if they can figure that out, they can explain."
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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