2 N.Y.ers are on Dems’ A-team
committed to calling witnesses.
Speaking from the Senate floor, McConnell suggested he wants to consider only the evidence that the House sends over and not admit more because “this has been naked partisanship all along.”
“This is a difficult time for our country,” McConnell said after the impeachment managers handed over the notice. “But this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the Senate. I am confident this body can rise above short-termism and factional fever and serve the long-term best interests of our nation. We can do this. And we must.”
A handful of members of McConnell’s own party have said they’d be willing to vote in favor of issuing subpoenas for testimony from the likes of John Bolton, the former Trump national security adviser who refused to testify voluntarily in the House proceedings even though he’s been described as one of the most important witnesses of the president’s Ukraine plot.
Fifty-one senators need to band together to pass a rule authorizing subpoenas for testimony. There are 53 Republicans and 47 in the Democratic caucus in the upper chamber.
McConnell has said he wants to shelve discussions on hosting such votes until after opening arguments are delivered by the impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team.
Even though Pelosi’s delay didn’t coax McConnell to make pretrial concessions, Democrats said it was successful nonetheless. They pointed to Bolton’s announcement this month that he’s ready to testify at Trump’s trial as long as he’s subpoenaed.
Dems also noted that just Tuesday night, the House Intelligence Committee released bombshell new evidence in the form of text messages and other records from ex-Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas that tied Trump even closer than he already was to the Ukraine scandal. “The speaker’s insistence on this point has gotten results,” Nadler said.
Schiff said more may be coming. “We are still going through, because the volume is so large, the materials we received,” Schiff said of Parnas’ records. “It’s entirely possible there will be new and important evidence that comes out.”
The impeachment managers will report to the Senate at noon Thursday to read the resolution appointing them as well as the articles of impeachment, according to a notice. Afterward, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will be sworn in to oversee the trial. He’s then set to swear in all 100 senators as jurors.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed two New York congressmen and five other lawmakers to serve as impeachment managers Wednesday, tasking them with presenting the Democratic case for President Trump’s removal from office at his forthcoming Senate trial.
As expected, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who oversaw the Trump impeachment inquiry, will serve as the lead manager spearheading the seven-person team.
Schiff’s right-hand man will be House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn), a titan of congressional procedure whose committee drafted and approved the impeachment articles charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his attempts to squeeze Ukraine for politically laced investigations and then seeking to cover up his misdeeds.
The two chairmen will be joined by Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn, Queens), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Val Demings (D-Fla.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas).
Pelosi trotted out the managers at a news conference before the House voted to officially send the two impeachment articles to the Senate, paving the way for Trump’s trial to officially start next week.
The speaker said her main consideration in selecting the managers was “comfort in the courtroom.”
“The emphasis is on litigators,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said. “The emphasis is making the strongest possible case to protect and defend our Constitution to seek the truth for the
American people.”
Pelosi reiterated the need for the Senate to call witnesses and records withheld from House investigators by Trump, citing Tuesday’s explosive release of text messages and other documents from a Rudy Giuliani associate as a signal that all outstandng evidence eeds to see the ight of day.
Trump reponded in real ime over Twiter.
“Here we go gain, another Con Job by the Do Nothing Democrats. All f this work was upposed to be one by the House, not the Senate,” the president tweeted, even though he ordered his entire administration to stonewall the House inquiry.
Jeffries, a rising star in the party, was an unexpected choice, considering he had just one day earlier all but dismissed the possibility of becoming a manager, telling reporters he was “looking forward” to get back to his “day job” as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Speaking to the Daily News after Pelosi’s news conference, the Crown Heights native said he’s confident his vice caucus chairwoman, Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, will “continue to carry things forward.”
He also acknowledged the weight of serving as a manager.
“Certainly as a manager, it reinforces the stakes, and I’m just going to work as hard as I can,” Jeffries said.
It was also significant that Pelosi tapped Crow and Garcia, who are serving their first terms in Congress.
Lofgren and Demings, meanwhile, are well-known faces on the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees.
Pelosi and her managers reiterated their argument that Trump must be removed from office over his attempts to solicit Ukrainian interference in the 2020 election.