Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is demanding new documents and whole new witness list before the House's articles of impeachment reach the Senate and they can move forward on a trial. The Democratic leader still wants to hear testimony from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton, senior adviser to the acting White House chief of staff Robert Blair, and Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey.
To Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), that sounds like Schumer doesn't have a whole lot of confidence in the case that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presented. The House voted to impeach Trump on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress a few weeks ago, but Pelosi is withholding those articles from the Senate.
Look at what Chuck Schumer is saying now. He's saying we need to do more investigating. What he's saying is, "#NancyPelosi, you failed. You failed to make the case and now we've got to do more investigations." pic.twitter.com/SlelTDIbwZ
— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) December 30, 2019
"Essentially he's saying we need to do more investigating," Rep. Green said of Schumer. "If you listen real clearly, what he's saying is, 'Hey Nancy, you failed. You failed to make the case and so now we've got to do more investigations.'"
He has a point and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the same observation a few weeks ago at the Heritage Foundation. If Schumer and the Democrats think they still need to hear more testimony, then why on Earth did they forge ahead with the House vote anyway?
"If they don't believe they've developed their factual record, they have every tool at their disposal to say, 'Gosh Chuck Schumer's given me a list of four witnesses we want, we're going to go get those witnesses' testimony,'" Cruz reasoned.
"The Senate Democratic leader would apparently like our chamber to do House Democrats’ homework for them," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell added.