Sen. Roy Blunt on CNN: Nancy Pelosi Doesn't Have the Right to Stall a Vote in the Senate

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., makes a statement at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019. Pelosi announced that the House is moving forward to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

On Sunday, Republican Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt dropped by CNN’s State of the Union to talk impeachment, and he laid down the law on Nancy P.

Host Dana Bash asked Roy about the upcoming trial in the upper chamber and whether it’ll start in January. Is a deal for that workable?

Roy said it’s Easy Peasy — the Clinton ordeal paved the way:

“You know, I think a deal is easy to come up with. And we have even got the plan in place from what happened in the Clinton impeachment. And I think that’s ultimately where we wind up, where we start down this path – let both sides make their case; let the House impeachment managers make their case; let the president, for what I would argue is the first time, have a chance to make his case publicly; for his defenders to do that, and then see where we are.

“That’s what happened with Clinton. I think that’s the best way to approach this. And my guess is, that’s what we do. Otherwise, we just sort of start down a path where 51 senators decide every issue as it comes up. I don’t know that anybody wants to either have that happen or take the time that would take on either side for us to get this out before the American people, both sides having a chance to present their case.”

So now let’s get down to what all the kids are talkin’ bout these days — Speaker Nancy’s withholding of the articles, in order to delay transference for fear of…gasp…partisanship.

Yes — partisanship.

Dana:

“So, as you well know, the standoff right now is that the Speaker is holding the articles of impeachment at the House until the parameters of the trial are done. The Wall Street Journal editorial board said that the Senate should and even could hold a trial even if they don’t get the articles. You’re the chair of the Rules Committee. Is that possible? Have you even looked into that?”

Roy claimed Nancy doesn’t have the power to hold onto the articles — once the lower chamber votes, it’s Next Step City:

“You know, I don’t know that that’s possible. I think it’s very unlikely. I, frankly, don’t think the Speaker has the right to do this or the power to do this. The speaker has a lot of power, but once the House has spoken, the Speaker doesn’t get the decision as to whether or not she transmits that decision to the Senate, in my view.”

On top of that, in Roy’s opinion, Pelosi’s making a grave mistake. Holding out over partisanship is, in fact, a heinous and transparent act of partisanship:

“Frankly, I think it’s a mistake on the speaker’s part. I think this has looked pretty political anyway, and this is sort of the icing on the political cake, where, at the end, the speaker still can’t let go of this as an issue to try to wring the last vestige of politics out of.”

As relayed by The Daily Wire, Nancy explained why she was refusing to release her grip after Wednesday’s vote:

“We’re not sending [the articles] tonight because it’s difficult to determine who the managers would be until we see the arena in which we will be participating.”

She’s waiting for that grand hallmark of this whole impeachment process — fairness:

“So far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us, so hopefully it will be fairer, and when we see what that is, we’ll send our managers.”

As noted by Politico, the Senate isn’t supposed to get down to business until there’s been a physical transference:

This concept of “conditional impeachment” is predicated on historical precedents in both the Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton impeachments. With those presidents, the Senate did not take up impeachment until the House impeachment managers physically delivered the articles of impeachment to the Senate in a formal presentation ceremony.

So what’s Nancy’s idea? To extort GOP senators for a vote to toss the President from his perch? To wait ’til 2020, when Dems take ownership of both houses?

It seems to me all of this is working to hurt the party of Kennedy in the next election.

So waiting, likely, won’t help.

All of this is a show, and the show must go on.

Roy has hope: