McConnell accuses Democrats of being ‘too afraid’ to send articles of impeachment to Senate

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) floated that House Democrats might be “too afraid” to transmit the articles of impeachment as lawmakers debate delaying sending them to the Senate.

“Speaker Pelosi suggested that House Democrats may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate,” McConnell said as part of a lengthy floor speech railing against the House impeachment votes.

McConnell added that it looked like the “prosecutors are getting cold feet in front of the entire country and second guessing whether they even want to go to trial.”

“They said impeachment was so urgent that it could not even wait for due process, but now they want to sit on their hands. This is really comical,” McConnell continued.

McConnell’s comments come after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to say when — or even if — Democrats will deliver the articles to the Senate.

“We’ll make that decision as a group, as we always have, as we go along,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.

House Democrats are mulling delaying transmitting the articles to the Senate as they try to build pressure on McConnell to agree to a fair deal on the rules for a trial, which is expected to start in January.

Democrats worry that McConnell is plotting to hold a speedy impeachment trial that would include no witnesses and would hand Trump a quick acquittal of the two articles of impeachment passed by the House.

McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are set to start negotiations this week on what the proceeding would look like, with the GOP leader telling his caucus to the announcement of a start date by Friday.

Schumer and Pelosi are also expected to sit down on Thursday to discuss strategy.