On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) admitted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holding off sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate did not persuade Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) to give in to any of the Democrats “demands.”
Jayapal said, “I don’t know exactly what the speaker is thinking. But I know that she has had a really good strategy of holding these articles, the transmission of these articles because we had no sense of whether Mitch McConnell was going to give us a fair trial or not. Now it appears very, very clear that Mitch McConnell is going to go against the will of the American people by having a trial that is a sham trial. But we’re going to do our part as the speaker said. We’ll transmit the articles. We’ll name our impeachment managers. The American people have to ask Mitch McConnell if he’s not going to respect the Constitution in this manner and have the senate do a fair trial when will he respect the Constitution. That is the single oath that we take when we come to office.”
Mitchell said, “At this point, he has not conceded at all to the speaker’s demands. What has she gained by waiting on transmitting the articles?”
Jayapal said, “Well, I think that it kept — it allowed us to keep the focus on what the American people want, which is a fair trial. We were able to send that message over and over and over again. So in Mitch McConnell not giving in to any of our demands as yet, hopefully, something will change with Republican senators, he’s saying he’s not willing to give the American people what the Constitution demands and what they want.”
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