McConnell fundraises off impeachment, says effort will fail 'with me as majority leader'[/b] USA TODAY Billy Kobin, Louisville Courier Journal,USA TODAY Sat, Oct 5 5:28 PM EDT
AP Top Stories September 30 P
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would have "no choice" but to hold a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House votes to impeach.
But in a new campaign ad on Facebook, the Kentucky Republican claims that [b]any impeachment attempt will fail as long as he remains in charge of the Senate.
"Nancy Pelosi's in the clutches of a left wing mob. They finally convinced her to impeach the president," McConnell says directly to the camera in a 17-second video. "All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.
"But I need your help," he adds, standing in front of a picture of an elephant. "Please contribute before the deadline."
The McConnell campaign, according to Facebook's "Ad Library," started running the digital ad last week, a few days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry over whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine's president to investigate political rival and possible 2020 opponent Joe Biden.
Pelosi: Trump impeachment probe 'a very sad time for our country'
The ad features the same video, but McConnell's team has paired the video with different captions that all are mostly focused on the topic of impeachment.
"Your conservative Senate Majority is the ONLY thing stopping Nancy Pelosi from impeaching President Trump. Donate & help us keep it!" one caption reads.
McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told The Courier Journal the impeachment inquiry is energizing the Senate leader's supporters.
"Few issues energize conservative voters like liberal overreach," Golden said in a statement. "And the Democrats latest outrageous attempt to impeach President Trump has activated our base to new heights."
Another caption from Team Mitch goes after Pelosi's fellow California Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee.
That caption appears to reference the New York Times reporting this week that Schiff received an early account of the whistleblower's complaint regarding Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Impeachment inquiry: House Democrats subpoena White House for Ukraine documents
More: Trump tears into Mitt Romney who said requests for Ukraine, China to investigate Biden were 'appalling'
The complaint from the anonymous whistleblower, reportedly a CIA officer, led to the White House releasing a summary of the July phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
According to the call's summary, Trump told Zelensky to reopen an investigation into a Ukrainian energy company connected to Biden's son, Hunter.
McConnell reportedly told the White House to release the transcript of the phone call, something that McConnell and his spokespeople have not commented on.
On Thursday, Trump added further fuel to the fire by telling reporters that China should also investigate the Bidens.
The president also claimed Thursday that McConnell put out a statement referring to the president's phone call with the president of Ukraine as "the most innocent phone call (transcript) that I’ve read."
McConnell's office has not responded to questions about Trump's assertion, though the Senate leader dismissed criticism of the call last week and said it is “laughable to think this is anywhere close to an impeachable offense.”
On the Senate floor, McConnell has defended his record of standing up for Ukraine, especially against the Russian government.
Democrats and some Republican critics of Trump have said the president's requests to Ukraine and China are a blatant attempt to have a foreign power interfere with next year's election.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
It would take a simple majority of the House (218 votes) to submit articles of impeachment to the Senate.
A trial would then be held in the Senate, where it would take at least two-thirds (or 67 votes) of the chamber to convict Trump and remove him from office.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial. But as majority leader, McConnell would have some power in setting up ground rules for a trial, including timing.
"So I would have no choice but to take it up," McConnell told CNBC on Monday, referring to the impeachment trial. "How long you're on it is a whole different matter."
The new campaign ad from McConnell shows the Senate leader sees the impeachment matter as a chance to raise funds for his 2020 reelection campaign.
Amy McGrath, a former Marine Corps pilot and one of several Democrats in Kentucky vying to unseat McConnell in 2020, endorsed the impeachment inquiry last week.
McGrath has also urged McConnell to show "patriotic courage" and get to the truth of the allegations in the whistleblower complaint.
The "deadline" mentioned by McConnell in the new video refers to this past Monday, Sept. 30.
'Over the top': McConnell still mad about #MoscowMitch, calls attention to 2020 election
That was the third-quarter cutoff for donations to Senate, House and presidential candidates.
Candidates now have until Oct. 15 to file reports with the Federal Election Commission that reveal their fundraising and spending totals.
According to Facebook's Ad Library, McConnell's campaign spent a little over $63,000 on digital ads between Sept. 27 and Oct. 3.
That represents about 44% of the roughly $143,500 that Facebook data shows Team Mitch spent from May 2018 to Oct. 3, a decent-sized sum in a brief amount of time.
According to the most recent FEC data, McConnell had a sizable war chest for his 2020 reelection bid, with nearly $7.9 million in cash on hand.
Follow Billy Kobin on Twitter: @Billy_Kobin
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mitch McConnell campaign ad says Trump impeachment will fail
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
McConnell fundraises off impeachment, says effort will fail 'with me as majority leader'[/b] USA TODAY Billy Kobin, Louisville Courier Journal,USA TODAY Sat, Oct 5 5:28 PM EDT
AP Top Stories September 30 P
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would have "no choice" but to hold a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House votes to impeach.
But in a new campaign ad on Facebook, the Kentucky Republican claims that [b]any impeachment attempt will fail as long as he remains in charge of the Senate.
"Nancy Pelosi's in the clutches of a left wing mob. They finally convinced her to impeach the president," McConnell says directly to the camera in a 17-second video. "All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.
"But I need your help," he adds, standing in front of a picture of an elephant. "Please contribute before the deadline."
The McConnell campaign, according to Facebook's "Ad Library," started running the digital ad last week, a few days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry over whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine's president to investigate political rival and possible 2020 opponent Joe Biden.
Pelosi: Trump impeachment probe 'a very sad time for our country'
The ad features the same video, but McConnell's team has paired the video with different captions that all are mostly focused on the topic of impeachment.
"Your conservative Senate Majority is the ONLY thing stopping Nancy Pelosi from impeaching President Trump. Donate & help us keep it!" one caption reads.
McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told The Courier Journal the impeachment inquiry is energizing the Senate leader's supporters.
"Few issues energize conservative voters like liberal overreach," Golden said in a statement. "And the Democrats latest outrageous attempt to impeach President Trump has activated our base to new heights."
Another caption from Team Mitch goes after Pelosi's fellow California Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee.
That caption appears to reference the New York Times reporting this week that Schiff received an early account of the whistleblower's complaint regarding Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Impeachment inquiry: House Democrats subpoena White House for Ukraine documents
More: Trump tears into Mitt Romney who said requests for Ukraine, China to investigate Biden were 'appalling'
The complaint from the anonymous whistleblower, reportedly a CIA officer, led to the White House releasing a summary of the July phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
According to the call's summary, Trump told Zelensky to reopen an investigation into a Ukrainian energy company connected to Biden's son, Hunter.
McConnell reportedly told the White House to release the transcript of the phone call, something that McConnell and his spokespeople have not commented on.
On Thursday, Trump added further fuel to the fire by telling reporters that China should also investigate the Bidens.
The president also claimed Thursday that McConnell put out a statement referring to the president's phone call with the president of Ukraine as "the most innocent phone call (transcript) that I’ve read."
McConnell's office has not responded to questions about Trump's assertion, though the Senate leader dismissed criticism of the call last week and said it is “laughable to think this is anywhere close to an impeachable offense.”
On the Senate floor, McConnell has defended his record of standing up for Ukraine, especially against the Russian government.
Democrats and some Republican critics of Trump have said the president's requests to Ukraine and China are a blatant attempt to have a foreign power interfere with next year's election.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
It would take a simple majority of the House (218 votes) to submit articles of impeachment to the Senate.
A trial would then be held in the Senate, where it would take at least two-thirds (or 67 votes) of the chamber to convict Trump and remove him from office.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial. But as majority leader, McConnell would have some power in setting up ground rules for a trial, including timing.
"So I would have no choice but to take it up," McConnell told CNBC on Monday, referring to the impeachment trial. "How long you're on it is a whole different matter."
The new campaign ad from McConnell shows the Senate leader sees the impeachment matter as a chance to raise funds for his 2020 reelection campaign.
Amy McGrath, a former Marine Corps pilot and one of several Democrats in Kentucky vying to unseat McConnell in 2020, endorsed the impeachment inquiry last week.
McGrath has also urged McConnell to show "patriotic courage" and get to the truth of the allegations in the whistleblower complaint.
The "deadline" mentioned by McConnell in the new video refers to this past Monday, Sept. 30.
'Over the top': McConnell still mad about #MoscowMitch, calls attention to 2020 election
That was the third-quarter cutoff for donations to Senate, House and presidential candidates.
Candidates now have until Oct. 15 to file reports with the Federal Election Commission that reveal their fundraising and spending totals.
According to Facebook's Ad Library, McConnell's campaign spent a little over $63,000 on digital ads between Sept. 27 and Oct. 3.
That represents about 44% of the roughly $143,500 that Facebook data shows Team Mitch spent from May 2018 to Oct. 3, a decent-sized sum in a brief amount of time.
According to the most recent FEC data, McConnell had a sizable war chest for his 2020 reelection bid, with nearly $7.9 million in cash on hand.
Follow Billy Kobin on Twitter: @Billy_Kobin
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mitch McConnell campaign ad says Trump impeachment will fail
Republicans, at least a large number of them including McConnell, are every bit as sleazy and sickening as any of the top Democrats. It's a freakin swamp, for crying out loud. I support Trump because he's trying to expose the swamp critters, but don't think for a second that if they got an "R" after their title they're a good guy. If it ever gets to pitchforks and torches and short ropes and long drops, we're gonna have to clean the whole swamp, not just the liberal rats and snakes! 7mm
"Preserving the Constitution, fighting off the nibblers and chippers, even nibblers and chippers with good intentions, was once regarded by conservatives as the first duty of the citizen. It still is." � Wesley Pruden
Anyone NOT worried has their head in the sand. There is a chance Trump did/said something wrong or questionable, the businessman in him would want a deal. Aside from that, this will NEVER go away, new things will come over and over. The goal is not to impeach him, but to make sure he doesn't get re-elected. D's are playing a dangerous game bringing stuff up non-stop. Voters will be fed up with it sooner or later and there's two paths out: vote out the D's (which is hard), or don't re-elect Trump, which is the easy path out, but one that won't solve any problems.
For those not smart enough to figure this out Trump wants to be impeached. The Democrats don't want to impeach, but may not have a choice. Impeachment does not mean removal from office. It is a trial just like any other trial. Since the republican controlled senate serves as jury he most likely won't be found guilty. But even if found guilty the punishment could be something less than removal from office. Not every convicted criminal gets the max sentence.
The democrats are investigating and so far have a video of the president confessing to an impeachable offense as well as a written summary of a phone call where the president confesses to the crime. In the near future Trump will change his defense and admit so and claim that he did this thinking it was in the best interest of the country and the crime does not rise to the level of even having a trial. He is daring the democrats to begin impeachment because he thinks that playing the victim to a bunch of evil democrats will help his re-election. The democrats know and understand this too. It worked for Bill Clinton.
Right now both sides are watching the public opinion polls. If enough people support impeachment the democrats will be forced to vote for it. If not, they will find an excuse to move on. Even with an impeachment trial the democrats know they have almost no chance to have Trump removed. That isn't the goal. They all know it would be better to beat him in November 2020. But having the trial allows them to do a lot of investigating, they can force Trump to testify under oath where he stands a very good chance of getting caught lying.
Impeachment is a process where they can dig up a lot of dirt leading up to the election. And who knows which direction that may go. At this point in 1974 Nixon had far more support than Trump does now. But as the investigation continued more and more evidence of Nixon crimes came out leading to his resignation. Remember this, Nixon had absolutely nothing to do with the Watergate break in. He had no prior knowledge of the crime. Lying to investigators and trying to cover it up was what led to his resignation.
The fact that we still haven't seen an actual verbatim transcript of the call, the fact that it wasn't immediately disclosed that Pompeo was on the line, and the fact that the recordings of the call was moved sure looks like a coverup. We still don't know what was said, there is just a written summary of what Trump claims he said. And with reports coming out that there are possibly dozens of other similar calls to other people is concerning too. Rudy Giuliani's role is questionable too.
Most people don't really want the truth.
They just want constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth.
T he democrats are investigating and so far have a video of the president confessing to an impeachable offense as well as a written summary of a phone call where the president confesses to the crime.
Where in the hell did you come up with this?
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man a welfare check, a forty ounce malt liquor, a crack pipe, an Obama phone, free health insurance. and some Air Jordan's and he votes Democrat for a lifetime.
