Right now in the political world, all eyes are on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
After all, now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the Democratic House of Representatives have decided to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump, it will be up to Senator McConnell to decide how to conduct the trial in the Senate. So far, it would seem that McConnell has one thing on his mind: Save the President.
Well, there is one entity that is not happy with that approach, and that is McConnell’s home state major news paper, the Louisville Courier Journal.
McConnell, along with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who chairs the all-important Senate Judiciary Committee, has made no bones about what he intends to do when it comes to Trump’s impeachment trial.
He intends to take his cues from the White House. There will be no fair trial, and McConnell, Graham, and the rest of the Republicans in the Senate will be helping make sure the defense – meaning the president – comes out on top.
McConnell’s home state paper absolutely blistered him for this stance in an editorial.
The piece actually accused the Senate Majority Leader of violating his oath of office in his attempts to protect Trump at all costs.
The editorial, written by a native son of Kentucky who is now a law professor at Boston College, says of McConnell’s Constitutional duties:
“The framers wanted to make sure the Senate would never take such a trial lightly — this oath requirement is over and above the oath each senator has already taken to support the Constitution. The Constitution does not set out the text of the trial oath, but the Senate rules do. Senators will ‘solemnly swear… that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.’”
Greenfield continues:
“Short of declaring war, the Senate is about to conduct its gravest and most serious constitutional obligation — to exercise the ‘sole power to try’ impeachments,” he concludes. “All senators should take their obligation of faithful impartiality seriously, especially McConnell. History is watching, and it will be a harsh judge.”
Right now, McConnell and his GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill seem to care very little about how harsh a judge history will be. However, one thing is clear: The republic and its future depend on checks and balances, and it seems that in the Republican-led Senate, we are not dealing with a co-equal branch of government, but with an extension of Donald Trump’s very corrupt White House.
