CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota gave a hard dose of reality to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Thursday regarding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) attempt to pressure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) by withholding the two articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Some Senate Democrats have said that it is time for Pelosi to send the articles over to the Senate. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the House Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Pelosi should send them over Thursday morning, before saying he misspoke a few hours later and that he supports Pelosi holding on to them.
"What Senator Dianne Feinstein says about this is that 'the longer it goes on, the less urgent it becomes. So if it’s serious and urgent, send them over,' meaning the articles. If it isn’t, don’t send it over. Do you agree with her?" Camerota asked.
"I believe that it is serious and urgent, and I also believe that Speaker Pelosi will be sending them over shortly," Gillibrand said, guessing Pelosi will send them to the Senate "within days."
"So within days. So basically your feeling is whatever the play was, she’s made her point, and that’s it. Basically Mitch McConnell has sort of won this one. He's the one who controls it," Camerota said.
"I wouldn’t say that. The American people’s attention has been drawn to the fact that senator McConnell isn’t playing fair," Gillibrand pushed back. "That he is hiding testimony and afraid to call witnesses. Many of my colleagues have used the word cover-up. That’s not something that is appropriate when we are dealing with something so urgent and something so serious."
In a floor speech on Thursday, McConnell gave Pelosi a deadline of the end of the week to send over the articles or else the Senate will work on other issues.
"We will operate on the assumption that House Democrats are too embarrassed — too embarrassed — to ever move forward. And we will get back to the people’s business," he said.