Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, arguably the most powerful legislator on Capitol Hill, has become a constant source of grief for the Left and the mainstream media. Leader McConnell is one of the most talented, calculated lawmakers, and has been the driving force behind GOP wins on the Hill throughout President Trump’s first-term in the White House. Most notably, Leader McConnell has been indispensable in re-shaping the federal judiciary for generations to come. In just three years, Leader McConnell’s GOP Senate majority has confirmed 187 judges to the federal bench. One in four federal circuit judges are appointees of President Trump, per The Washington Post. This record-breaking confirmation pace headed by McConnell, which leaves the mere 55 total nominations made by President Obama in the dust, ensures that the federal judiciary will be made up of well-qualified jurists for decades. The two Supreme Court confirmations are also not to be forgotten; Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh represent adherence to the Constitution on the bench of the highest court. The Judiciary as a whole is now encompassed by jurists who value the Constitution as written, not partisan ideologues with an intent to legislate from the bench.
Amidst the hyper-partisan impeachment charade, in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to hand over the articles of impeachment passed by her chamber, Leader McConnell is conducting business as usual. During the House’s for-show impeachment vote, the GOP Senate confirmed 15 district court judges. While Speaker Pelosi and her caucus demand that the senate follow their rules for the impeachment trial exclusively, Leader McConnell continues to confirm judges. The talented legislator from Kentucky has truly earned the nickname ‘grim reaper.’
Speaker Pelosi is not alone in her outrage at Leader McConnell for confirming judges while the House of Representatives holds the articles. Dozens of far-left groups penned a letter to Leader McConnell and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham (R-SC), demanding that judicial confirmations be frozen until after the impeachment trial.
BREAKING: Dozens of groups, including @civilrightsorg, are calling on @senatemajldr and Judiciary Chairman @LindseyGrahamSC to stop consideration of Trump’s judicial nominees while he’s under the cloud of impeachment for such high crimes and misdemeanors. https://t.co/B9nqneyJ91 pic.twitter.com/q880wgWuKT
— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) January 7, 2020
The letter calls for a fair impeachment trial, but what the radical ideologues signed on to the document fail to admit is that Leader McConnell is already appeasing their demand. Indeed, Leader McConnell has made it clear that he believes that President Trump’s senate trial should mirror that of former President Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial. In particular, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tries to paint Leader McConnell as a partisan in favor of President Trump, but the senator from New York seems to forget that he himself favored the same rules for former President Clinton:
The letter also points to impeachment as a rare occurrence, an ‘extraordinary remedy,’ but the radical faction of the left has been calling for impeachment since November 9th, 2016, before President Trump was even sworn into office.
Leader McConnell is well within his powers to conduct the trial as he and the rest of the GOP- Majority sees fit. Speaker Pelosi holding the articles over the upper chamber is nothing more than a public relations stunt, and a fight she appears to have lost-- Leader McConnell has united all 53 GOP Senators behind his common-sense impeachment framework, including moderate Republicans who are critical of President Trump.
"My Democratic friends are losing patience -- just like the American people are losing patience. The country knows this absurdity should not go on."
— Doug Andres (@DougAndres) January 8, 2020
Until Speaker Pelosi hands the articles over, Leader McConnell will continue to conduct business as usual. Leader McConnell has the upper-hand, and really outplayed his Democratic colleagues here; they would do well to cede this fight.