Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said he did not believe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has the power to hold the articles of impeachment from the Senate.
Blunt said, “I don’t think the speaker has the right or the power to do this. The speaker has a lot of power, but once the House is spoken, the speaker doesn’t get the decision as to whether or not she transmits that decision to the Senate in my view. I think we’ll have this all handled by the time we get back in January. I’m sure everybody is beginning to figure out how to present their case. Frankly, I think it is a mistake on the speaker’s part. I think it is pretty political anyway. And this is sort of the icing on the political cake, where at the end the speaker still can’t let go of this as an issue to try to wring the last vestige of politics out of it.”
He continued, “The outcome here is virtually certain. As I’ve been saying for weeks, a partisan vote in the House would certainly result in a partisan vote in the Senate so that the outcome is certain. Trying to get the last thing out of it rather than move on as the speaker appeared to want to do one day last week, and then suddenly she decides to involve herself in what the Senate should do.”
He added, “Based on what I know right now, I don’t think they made the case. I don’t think they came close to making the case.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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