Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking a historic stand in defense of the rule of law, rejecting the Democrats’ politically motivated impeachment effort while working with President Trump to restore impartiality to the federal judiciary.
Senator McConnell’s relationship with President Trump has been the subject of endless media speculation. As impeachment heads to the Senate, though, the senior senator from Kentucky has made it abundantly clear that he will not allow the Senate trial to be politicized the way the House impeachment inquiry was.
“We’ll listen to the opening arguments by the House prosecutor, we’ll listen to the President’s lawyers. Then we’ll make a decision about the way forward,” McConnell told Sean Hannity. “We all know how it’s going to end. There’s no chance the President is going to be removed from office.”
By taking such a strong stand, Senator McConnell has shown the American people that he will not allow the left to overturn the results of the 2016 election. The impeachment hoax will die in the United States Senate, but not before McConnell conducts a fair trial that fully exposes the perfidy of this partisan farce.
Indeed, McConnell recently revealed that he has the votes to approve the same rules for Trump’s impeachment trial that the Senate used to try Bill Clinton.
Fortunately, Leader McConnell and President Trump have been able to develop an enormously productive relationship, especially when it comes to measures that don’t require input from the obstructionist Democrats who control the House of Representatives, such as judicial appointments. McConnell has moved President Trump’s judicial nominations through the Senate at breakneck pace, confirming 174 judges so far, with dozens more in the pipeline. These appointments will influence American politics for a generation.
The president highlighted that success in his foreword to the new paperback edition of McConnell’s book, The Long Game.
“The effort to transform the courts is one that will benefit the American people far into the future. It is a legacy of which I am immensely proud and one for which Mitch McConnell deserves great credit,” Trump writes. “Transforming the federal judiciary is the ultimate long game!”
Remaking the federal courts ensures that the next generation of conservatives won’t undergo the persistent obstructionism that renegade judges have foisted upon this administration. Federal courts have issued a record number of injunctions against President Trump’s initiatives, using their authority to help liberal interest groups hamper the rollout of federal policy.
Thanks to the new appointments, judges who understand that their duty is to the Constitution, not progressive causes, will issue rulings based on the letter of the law, not their personal political sympathies. That’s good for American jurisprudence and vital for the rule of law.
Leader McConnell’s commitment to a fair impeachment trial is equally momentous. After hearings in the Senate, there won’t be any doubt about the fraudulent basis underlying the Democrats’ articles of impeachment — something that wouldn’t be the case if McConnell politicized the matter the way House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies have done.
McConnell’s legacy will ultimately be defined by the actions he takes at this turning point in American history. If he sticks to his guns, he’ll be remembered as an indispensable defender of the Constitution at a time when it was under relentless assault.
Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) is a constitutional law attorney and the senior legal adviser for the Trump 2020 campaign. She is the author of The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution.