Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) delay in sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate showed that Democrats “are in a total panic.”
“Her threat to the Senate is ‘Do exactly what I want or I’m not going to impeach the president, I’m not going to send over the impeachment articles,’” Cruz said during an appearance on Fox News on Thursday. “My attitude is, OK, throw us in that brier patch. Don’t send them. That’s all right. We actually have work to do. Some of us are showing up fighting for more jobs, for higher wages, for the working men and women who elected us.”
“I think the Democrats are in a total panic,” he added. “Yesterday was a very, very bad day for Democrats and it was a bad day for the House of Representatives and for the country.”
After Trump was impeached in a sharply partisan vote on Wednesday night, Pelosi said that she doesn’t know when she’ll submit the articles to the Senate, claiming she’d hold them until the GOP-controlled chamber commits to a “fair” trial.
At a press conference Thursday, she said she won’t choose impeachment managers or send the two articles to the Senate until the upper congressional body comes to an agreement on trial rules.
“When we see what they have, we’ll know who and how many to send over,” Pelosi told reporters. “The next thing for us,” she added, “is when we see the process set forth in the Senate. We will have the monitors set forth and who we will choose.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House Majority Whip, said Thursday that the delay could go on indefinitely.
Other Senators also criticized Pelosi for her decision.
“Is this a joke? Democrats impeach the President without alleging a single crime, with a bipartisan coalition voting AGAINST, and now don’t have the guts to actually try their case? Did they put the country through this chaos just for their own amusement?” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a statement.
Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up! The Do Nothings are so bad for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2019
“Playing games with the transmission of the Articles to the Senate will not impede or influence the Senate, but it will be the kind of partisan political stunt that further undermines the credibility of the process carried out by House Democrats,” added Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats were “too afraid” of sending the articles to the Senate, and President Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday to write: “Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up!”
McConnell later told reporters that Pelosi wasn’t gaining any sort of leverage by holding the articles.
“Frankly, I’m not anxious to have the trial. If she thinks her case is so weak she doesn’t want to send it over, throw me into that briar patch,” he said.
