Fail to strike impeachment trial deal

McConnell and Schumer fail to strike impeachment trial deal

The Senate majority leader earlier ripped into Nancy Pelosi for threatening to delay Trump's impeachment trial.

By BURGESS EVERETT

After sniping at each other all week, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer held a pivotal face-to-face meeting about President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Thursday afternoon. It did not produce any tangible results.

McConnell and Schumer each walked into a room off the Senate floor around 3 p.m. and filed out about 20 minutes later. But the meeting did not break the logjam, leaving the critical details of the approaching trial up in the air.

"We remain at an impasse," McConnell said on Thursday afternoon. He said the Senate will return on Jan. 3 but not vote until Jan. 6, clouding the impending trial in some mystery.

Senators and aides were pessimistic the two would come to an understanding in the rush to leave town before the holidays. That’s due to both their frosty relationship and the fact that the two Senate leaders took incompatible positions heading into the much-anticipated huddle over the parameters of the impeachment trial looming in January.

McConnell wants to begin the trial and hear from Trump’s lawyers and the House impeachment managers before trying to call witnesses, which many Republicans oppose to begin with. Schumer wants the decision to be made simultaneously and haul in top administration officials who might reveal new information on the Trump administration’s decision to withhold aid to Ukraine and the president’s request for the country announce investigations of Joe Biden.

Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Schumer, said the leader “made clear to Sen. McConnell that the witnesses and documents are necessary to ensure a fair trial in the Senate. Sen. Schumer asked Sen. McConnell to consider Sen. Schumer’s proposal over the holidays."

But McConnell said Schumer was trying to establish a new standard for Trump. In 1999, during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, the GOP-controlled Senate voted 100-0 to set up the trial's terms, then held a partisan vote on subpoenaing witnesses shortly after.

"My friend from New York continues to insist on departing from the unanimous bipartisan precedent," McConnell said. "I continue to believe that the unanimous bipartisan precedent that was good enough for Bill Clinton ought to be good enough for President Trump."

Schumer has argued that because Clinton's impeachment involved more witness testimony during the House's inquiry, the two episodes are not comparable.

The leaders puffed up their chests on Thursday morning in the wake of the House’s Wednesday vote to impeach the president. McConnell called it “slapdash” and said the precedent being set means “future Houses of either party will feel free to toss up a ‘jump ball’ every time they feel angry. Free to swamp the Senate with trial after trial.”

Schumer shot back, saying “we believe the House’s case is strong, very strong…but if the Republican leader believes it’s so weak, why is he so afraid of relevant witnesses and documents?”

While it was not imperative the two leaders strike an agreement on Thursday, making progress in the coming days would go a long way to establishing some stability in the chamber, particularly after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she would not immediately send over the impeachment managers to trigger the trial.

Senators right now don’t know when the trial will begin, how long the debate time will be, whether witnesses will be called and whether they can also consider legislation during the trial.

Perhaps, some hope, Schumer and McConnell can cut a deal on the absolute basics and give the trial a veneer of bipartisanship.

“I’m gonna be optimistic. They should. It would be helpful. There’s no reason we can’t agree on what to do the first couple of weeks. That’s what we should do,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “We ought to agree on how to begin … and then we can stop and say: Do we need more evidence? And then we’ll probably disagree on that.”

But Schumer’s caucus seems to fully back his witness requests and worries that if McConnell doesn't agree to witnesses now, Republicans will never help call them.

“We should have had it worked out now,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). “You’ve got to have evidence. You’ve got to have witnesses … some people would speculate you would do one and not the other. So there has to be an agreement” that touches on witnesses.

But Schumer’s aim to negotiate witnesses and debate time at the same time and McConnell’s opposition made it impossible, for both sides to clinch a deal and save face on Thursday.

“From what I’ve seen on TV it doesn’t look very cheery right now. But they’re pros. They can put their differences aside,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

“It’s a strained relationship,” acknowledged a senator who speaks to both leaders regularly.

Schumer also met with Pelosi Thursday to discuss strategy. Shortly after the House impeached Trump Wednesday night, Pelosi refused to commit to sending McConnell the articles charging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, arguing that Democrats “haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us.”

But McConnell seemed unmoved by her threat.

“It’s like the prosecutors are getting cold feet in front of the entire country and second-guessing whether they even want to go to trial,” McConnell said in a 30-minute floor speech on Thursday morning.

Some liberals have argued that Pelosi has leverage over McConnell, arguing she can withhold sending impeachment managers to the Senate to pressure him into negotiating with Schumer.

Schumer says his Sunday letter to McConnell asking for administration witnesses was merely a response to McConnell's public statements about working with Trump and his repeated predictions that the Senate would acquit him. He asserted on Thursday that "Democrats want a fair trial" and that McConnell currently "has no intention of conducting a fair trial."

“Look, I will always be open and I'm not going to let anything personal get in the way,” Schumer said in an interview on Tuesday of his talks with McConnell.

In theory once the trial starts, McConnell and his 53-member majority could ignore Schumer and establish rules on a partisan basis. Motions during the trial require a simple majority to pass. But a number of Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine want McConnell and Schumer to work out a deal rather than see the GOP majority steamroll Democrats.

“They’re still going to be working on it. That’s what we’re encouraging them to do,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).