Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, entered into a verbal squabble with the Republican majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Monday / December 23, 2019, about the procedures of trying US President Donald Trump on two counts of exploitation Power and blocking the work of Congress.
Pelosi, the president of the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives by 232 to 198 Republicans, who voted to dismiss President Donald Trump last Wednesday (12/18/2019), said that she had not yet completed the formation of her team to accompany Trump´s trial in the Senate.
"The House of Representatives cannot choose its representatives in the isolation proceedings before we know what the trial will be held by the Senate," she wrote in a tweet.
The House of Representatives will form a prosecution team in Trump´s trial before the Senate, which is scheduled to start in January 2020, as Republicans have a majority in the House (53 seats versus 45 Democrats) in addition to two independents.
The US constitution states that 67 senators (out of 100) must vote, by absolute majority, to remove the president from office, which is unlikely.
Pelosi has yet to submit the indictment, which was approved by the House of Representatives last week, and includes two charges for Trump, amid a row with McConnell over the form of the trial.
Democrats are demanding that four current and former White House advisers directly linked to the Ukraine file testify before the Senate: the alternate White House chief of staff, Mick Molveny, the former National Security Adviser to the President, John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and White House official Mike Dave, who asked the US Department of Defense on July 25 to freeze US aid, 90 minutes after Trump´s phone call to the new Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky, for Ukraine to conduct investigations against the former vice president, Joe Biden, who is in the initial phase Avsh Trump in the 2020 presidential election, which is considered the most likely contender against Trump.
Trump had prevented the four advisers involved from testifying before the House of Representatives.
Democrats consider that their appearance will strengthen the party’s position in the trial before the Senate, as the removal of the president requires a majority of two-thirds of the council.
Pelosi said, "President Trump withheld his witnesses and documents from the House of Representatives and the American people, against the backdrop of false complaints about the House procedures," and asked, "What is his argument now?".
McConnell, in turn, accused the "Fox News" television station, Monday, of Pelosi, of taking a "ridiculous position," describing it as "trying to clearly tell us how the trial is going to take place." "We did not exclude (the appearance of) the witnesses," he added, noting that he wanted to apply the same rules that were adopted in the trial of former President Bill Clinton.
"The opening arguments are heard, then there is a period of written questions," McConnell said. "At that point in the Clinton trial, we reached a decision on the witnesses who were likely to be called."
"What was right for President Clinton would be good for President Trump," he added.
McConnell attacked Pelosi for not yet submitting the indictment to the Senate, saying, "The papers must be submitted to the Senate, and we cannot move forward until the Speaker of the House does this."
"I am not anxious to conduct this trial. If you want not to hand over the papers, do so," said the Republican leader.
"I assume she will send it sooner or later," McConnell said, adding, "It seems to me in vain that the papers will not be sent to the Senate after the impeachment measures against the president have been launched for the trial provided for in the constitution."
In turn, Trump, who is spending his Christmas vacation at his private resort "Maralago" in Florida, attacked the Speaker of the House and wrote in a tweet on Twitter that "Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the US Congress, and is now crying to demand a fair trial in the Senate and violate all the rules".
